Report from the Commission to the Council – Evaluation report on the European Union Crime Prevention Network

Crime prevention is recognised as an important tool to contribute to citizens' safety and security. The Lisbon Treaty mentions crime prevention among the key building blocks to establish and maintain an area of freedom, security and justice. Also the Stockholm Programme reiterated the importance of crime prevention.

The European Crime Prevention Network (EUCPN) was set up by Council Decision 2001/427/JHA. The main objective of the Decision establishing EUCPN was to promote crime prevention activities and to provide a means through which valuable good practice in preventing crime could be shared. In 2009 it was repealed by Council Decision 2009/902/JHA, which specified the tasks of the EUCPN as follows:

- Facilitate cooperation, contacts and exchanges of information and experience between actors in the field of crime prevention;
- Collect, assess and communicate evaluated information including good practice on existing crime prevention activities;
- Organise conferences, in particular an annual Best Practice Conference, and other activities, including the annual European Crime Prevention Award, designed to achieve the objectives of the Network and to share widely the results thereof;
- Provide its expertise to the Council and the Commission as required;
- Report to the Council on its activities each year through the Board and the competent working bodies. The Council shall be invited to endorse the report and forward it to the European Parliament;
- Develop and implement a work programme based on a clearly defined strategy that takes account of identifying and responding to relevant crime threats.

According to article 9 of the 2009 Council decision, the Commission shall present by 30 November 2012 an evaluation report to the Council on the activities of the Network with a special focus on the efficiency of the work of the Network and its Secretariat, taking due account of the interaction between the Network and other relevant stakeholders. In the Stockholm Programme, the European Council invited the Commission to submit a proposal to setting up an 'Observatory for the Prevention of Crime' (OPC) which should include or replace the EUCPN, with a secretariat located within an existing EU agency and functioning as a separate unit.

This document therefore evaluates the work of the EUCPN over the past two and a half years and provides recommendations as regards the future, including considering the feasibility of establishing a Crime Prevention Observatory.

EUR-Lex: COM(2012)717: Follow the progress of this document through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2012:717:FIN

---