A criminal record of 5 or 25

(B2 archives *) The French project to set up a common criminal record between several countries (France, Spain, Belgium, Germany), supported by the French Minister of the Interior Nicolas Sarkozy (1), appears disturbing to say the least, seen from Brussels, and a bit “flashy”.

Government reluctance

After a few years of inaction, due to the bad will of the governments According to a specialist in the dossier in Brussels, the work on the European criminal record got under way under the pressure of two specific events. The attacks in Madrid and the Fourniret affair acted as a trigger. The Madrid attacks illustrate that terrorist networks have criminal ramifications in several European countries. And that an effective investigation can no longer be carried out by a single police force. The Fourniret case, this French pedophile who had taken refuge in Belgium (3), demonstrates that the “ordinary” criminal ignores borders to continue his unhealthy works.

A Commission proposal

Formally proposed by the European Commission on October 14 (2004), the text aimed at harmonizing the exchange of judicial information between the 25 Member States, fairly quickly obtained the political agreement of the ministers and of the European Parliament. On February 24 (2005), the ministers of justice thus agreed on a similar mechanism. And the project was approved by the European Parliament. This text specifies that when a State convicts a national of another Member State, it informs the Member State of nationality without delay. It also creates an obligation to respond to any request for information. This, on the scale of the 25 Member States of the European Union. Which has a different scale than the French project.

An important measure

« An important, necessary and urgent measure “, Estimates the deputy Antonio Di Pietro, former Italian anti-mafia judge and rapporteur on this file. On March 17 (2005), the Commission tabled another text, this time to harmonize the consideration of convictions pronounced in another country. And next June, it intends to propose to improve the content of the information contained in this file. Because, as a French magistrate pointed out, the Fourniret case the watch. Having exchanges of information is not enough, creating a European criminal record will not be enough. It is also necessary to harmonize its content ».

(Nicolas Gros-Verheyde)

(1) With a project to interconnect criminal records to allow the immediate transmission of notices of convictions concerning their nationals (a kind of informal enhanced cooperation).

(2) In a White Paper, the Commission proposed a two-step process: first, the establishment of a European index of persons who have already been convicted, making it possible to identify the person and Member State in which he has already been convicted. Then, the creation of a standardized European format, presenting in a homogeneous form the information relating to the identity of the convicted person and to the facts giving rise to the conviction.

(3) Fourniret had been employed by a Belgian municipality as a canteen supervisor without knowing that he had already been convicted of morality in France a few years earlier (Read all the articles on theThe Fourniret case)

(*) long version of an article published in Le Progrès de Lyon