BREAKING NEWS
February 7 2007
Criminal Code Raises Fear Over EU Powers
For eurosceptics, the European Court of Justice ruling in September 2005 was like giving a child a loaded gun. It opened the way for the European Union to designate a new class of pan-European crimes, and how they should be punished.

In Britain there was an outcry. In future decisions taken in Brussels could be applied to the British courts, denying parliament the right to determine what constituted a crime and levels of sentencing.

Concerns grew when the European Commission interpreted the ruling as being far wider than the case at issue: environmental crime. It produced a list of offences it believed should also be covered by the new rules, including counterfeiting, money laundering and computer hacking.

The Commission's decision this week to create common criminal rules for environmental crimes is seen by some as a sign that Brussels will take full advantage of the court ruling to stealthily advance EU powers. Franco Frattini, the EU's justice commissioner, is said by aides to be fully aware that the court has handed him a powerful legal weapon, but it is one that he will use with restraint.

But what is to stop zealous Brussels officials fulfilling the Napoleonic tendencies often ascribed to them by eurosceptics and laying down the law to member states? Last night British lawyers said the 2005 European Court ruling did not appear to have had any significant practical consequences.

But the sceptics argue that these are early days. They fear that in time Brussels might forget the court's reminder that as a general rule "neither criminal law nor the rules of criminal procedure fall within the Community's competence."
Financial Times