Report from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council based on Article 10 of Council Framework Decision 2008/841/JHA of 24 October 2008 on the fight against organised crime

Council Framework Decision 2008/841/JHA of 24 October 2008 on the fight against organised crime points out in its preamble that the European Union’s objective is to improve the common capability of the Union and the Member States for the purpose, among others, of combating cross-border organised crime. The main focus of the Framework Decision is the criminalisation of offences relating to participation in a criminal organisation.

On the basis of Article 10 of the Framework Decision, the Member States had to adopt the necessary implementing measures and notify them to both the Council and the Commission by 11 May 2010. The Commission was to draw up a report based on this information. The Council should then have assessed, by 11 November 2012, whether Member States had taken the necessary measures to comply with the Framework Decision. By the time of the deadline for transposition, namely 11 May 2010, only four Member States had provided the Commission with their notifications. Other Member States communicated their transposition measures after that date.

The description and analysis in this report are primarily based on the information that Member States have provided, supplemented by publicly available information and findings of an external study. The Commission requested that Member States notify national transposition measures for instruments under the former third pillar acquis, including this Framework Decision, through the MNE database ("Mesures Nationales d’Éxecution"). At the time of writing, all Member States have notified such measures.

The report focuses on analysis of Articles 1 to 8. It does not discuss Articles 9 to 12, as these provisions do not require implementation. The assessment criteria adopted by the Commission for this report are the general criteria adopted in 2001 relevant to assess the implementation of framework decisions (practical effectiveness, clarity and legal certainty, full application and compliance with the time limit for transposition). Secondly, criteria specific to this Framework Decision are also used, further details of which are provided in the analysis of the individual provisions.

For consistency’s sake, national provisions in relation to the Framework Decision are assessed separately for the Member States that base their systems on a self-standing offence in relation to Article 2 and those that take different approaches.