The Erasmus University Rotterdam (the Netherlands), the Amsterdam Public prosecution office (the Netherlands), together with Bielefeld University (Germany) and the Federal prosecution office (Belgium) have taken the initiative for a research project into the current practice of the transfer of criminal proceedings between member states of the European Union. The project is funded by the European Commission as a part of the Justice programme (JUST-AG-2019).
Aim and content of the research project
Aim and content of the research project The aim of the research project is to explore the current practice of the transfer of criminal proceedings in the EU with a focus on possible ways for improvement, based on practitioner’s views. The judicial cooperation in the EU can greatly benefit from a bottom up, comparative law perspective where it comes to developing practice and where necessary creating a dedicated legal framework. Representatives of nine EU member states have confirmed their participation in the project (Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Spain and Sweden).
Research will be conducted in four consecutive phases. In Phase 1 the EU legal framework, other international instruments, national legislation, case law, and statistical information will be collected. To this end, a preliminary questionnaire will be sent to our participant network.
Phase 2 will see the research team travelling to the participating member states to meet with respondents and have in depth discussions about their experience with the transfer of criminal proceedings, as well as their ideas for possible improvement. The collected information will be assembled in preliminary findings.
In Phase 3 (October 2021) a working conference will be organized in Rotterdam (the Netherlands) to discuss the preliminary findings and possible ways for improvement. The working conference will gather participants from the participating members states (the respondents interviewed in Phase 2, legislative lawyers and scholars) as well as experts from Eurojust, EJN and non-participating member states.
Finally, Phase 4 will be used to (re)consider all results, lay them down in a written report and formulate joint recommendations for improvement. In all the project will last 22 months (till 1 June 2022). Further, updated information about the research project can be found here.
Next steps
Mid November 2020, respondents in participating member states can expect to receive a preliminary questionnaire with questions about their national legislation on the transfer of criminal proceedings, statistics and experiences. We will be very grateful for their information.
