Crime victims to be given EU-wide protection

Tuesday 30 Nov 2010 @ 09:39
EU News

Victims of crime who have been granted protection by the authorities of one EU Member State must also be protected if they move to another EU country, under new rules backed on Monday by the Civil Liberties Committee and the Women's Rights Committee.

MEPs voted to broaden the scope of the rules, laid down in the new European Protection Order, to include all victims of crime, not only victims of gender violence.

The aim of the European Protection Order (EPO) is to ensure that any protection provided to a person in one Member State also applies in any other EU country to which the person moves or has moved. The two EP committees gave their support to this measure following an agreement reached with representatives of the Belgian presidency of the Council. However, the agreement has yet to be confirmed by the full Council.

One of the two MEPs piloting this legislation through Parliament, Carmen Romero López (S&D, ES), spoke of "the urgency of the directive to protect victims throughout the EU". The second rapporteur, Teresa Jiménez-Becerril Barrio (EPP, ES) said "we want to send out a strong signal to the Council to vote in favour. We have worked hard to try to protect victims and we are not giving up".

The Belgian presidency representative told MEPs "some Member States are still having difficulties with the scope of the directive. The Council will now take stock of this vote and take into account the signal from the EP".

All crime victims to be covered

Although most protection measures concern women who are victims of gender violence, any other victim – a child or adult of either sex – who has suffered violence at the hands of an identified aggressor can also be covered. “This Directive applies to protection measures which aim at protecting all victims and not only the victims of gender violence, taking into account the specificities of each type of crime concerned”, says the agreed text.

The directive will apply to victims, or possible victims, who need to be protected “against a criminal act of another person which may, in any way, endanger his life, physical, psychological and sexual integrity, e.g. by preventing any form of harassment, as well as his dignity or personal liberty, e.g. by preventing abductions, stalking and other forms of indirect coercion, and aiming at avoiding new acts of crime or at reducing the consequences of previous acts of crime”.

Protection across borders

Protection measures exist in all Member States but they cease to have effect when someone crosses a border. Under the new legislation, an EPO may be issued at the request of the protected person when she/he decides to reside or already resides in another Member State, or when that person decides to stay or already stays in another Member State. It will be up to the State where that person is protected to issue an EPO and to transmit it to the country where the person is moving or already living.

Since in the Member States different kinds of authorities - criminal, civil or administrative - have the power to issue and enforce protection measures, “it seems appropriate to provide a high degree of flexibility in the cooperation mechanism between the Member States”, says the agreed text. Therefore, the relevant authority in the country where the person moves does not in all cases have to take the same protection measure as adopted in the country of origin, but will have “a degree of discretion to adopt any measure which it finds adequate and appropriate under its national law in a similar case in order to provide continued protection” to that person.

Keeping aggressors away

The person causing danger could, for example, be banned from entering certain places or defined areas where the protected person resides or that she or he visits, or from approaching that person closer than a prescribed distance. Contact in any form with the protected person, including by phone, electronic or ordinary mail, fax or any other means, can also be prohibited or regulated.

Protection of victims' relatives

Thanks to MEPs, an EPO may also be requested to safeguard relatives of a beneficiary of a European Protection Order.

In addition to requiring adoption by the full Council, this agreement must still be put to a vote by the full Parliament at its December plenary session in Strasbourg. Provided the directive is adopted, Member States will have three years to transpose it into national law.

Result of the vote in committee: 47 in favour,0 against and 5 abstentions

In the chair:

Juan Fernando López Aguilar (S&D, ES) - Civil Liberties Committee

Eva-Britt Svensson (GUE/NGL, SE) - Women's Rights Committee

: 20101129IPR02608 : 20101129IPR02608