Transnational Organized Crime and European Union: Aspects and Problem

Abstract

The fight against criminal organisations and their ability to carry out illegal activities beyond national systems has represented a “bridge head” in the European path towards the harmonisation of criminal laws in the Member States. After identifying the role of the harmonisation of criminal law in the European Union Treaties, the study underline that the difficulty in defining the concept of transnational organised crime could lead to a too wide European intervention. In order to avoid such a risk, it is useful to refer to other relevant international sources, like the 2000 Palermo UN Convention. Nevertheless, the more recent European decisions on the matter (in particular, a Resolution by the European Parliament of the 25th October 2011) have a remarkable degree of attention about the main problems on this matter. Furthermore, the European Union’s action in Criminal Law shows a more general problem: in order to maintain the Criminal Law system as a tool to protect all citizens, it is necessary to reconsider the traditional guarantees in the new European dimension. To this topic is dedicated the final part of the contribution, with reference to the European Court of Human Rights and the European Charter of Fundamental Rights as counterweights to avoiding a unbalanced European intervention against organised crime.