Knowledge of European Law as a means of combating transnational organized crime

In the Project “Knowledge of European Union Law as a means of combating transnational organized crime”, the Fondazione Italiana del Notariato  drew upon the experience gained in its previous studies of EU law related subjects as well as the effects of EU law on national bodies. Equally, the Fondazione benefitted from its natural role of providing an analysis of norms, such as those indicated in the EC DG Justice call for proposals, which directly see the notary as a “gate keeper” charged with the responsibility of facilitating and ensuring their application in countries. In this context, it is evident that there is significant synergy between the Italian notary and the network of international partners in the project.

 

General objective: the project intended to obtain improved knowledge of EU Law and the national laws of the Member States, with particular attention to the countries involved in the project. This was planned in order to facilitate the comparison and harmonization of the different laws and jurisprudence with special emphasis on norms dedicated to the prevention and fight against transnational organized crime. 
 
Specific objective: provide training for European legal practitioners; facilitate the reasoned and systematized collection of European and national legal and juridical sources; contribute to the harmonization of such sources inside the Member State also through the support of advanced technological tools; organize and implement exchange of best practices.

 

1. Practical and theoretical training sessions on general and specific aspects of the subjects addressed in the project (combating money-laundering, managing assets confiscated from organised crime, fighting terrorism and the so-called “blacklists”, transnational insolvencies and relevant criminal law implications), offering both distance learning and presence learning in the Member States hosting the partner organisations.
2. Exchange of good practices implemented at national level, including sharing of results achieved during training sessions.
3. Research activities aimed at keeping abreast of EU laws and regulations as well as of their effects on Member States' national laws and jurisprudence

Target group: Legal practitioners including judges, lawyers and notaries; victims support representatives; academics and researchers. Beneficiaries: EU and candidate countries citizens; national and European authorities benefitting from a more widespread “European culture” and from increased training of their legal practitioners.

 

The project used advanced technological solutions (i.e. video-conferencing systems used during the coordination meetings regularly organized during the project) in order to facilitate sharing of experiences and exchange of information among the partners.

 

More specifically, the subjects dealt with in more detail during the various phases of the project have covered both a general part:

1. The sources of law: relationship between European and national sources;

2. The effects of the so-called “framework-decisions”, of the Regulations and Directives;

3. The role of the Court of Justice and the effects of the hearings in the Member States,

 

and a technical part:

1. The fight against money-laundering;

2. The administration and allocation of the confiscated assets from criminal organisations;

3. The fight against international terrorism, the resolutions of the UN Security Council and the EU Regulations related to the so-called blacklists;

4. The penal consequences of cross-border insolvencies, with special attention to bankruptcy and the respect of the privacy and penal laws related to it.

 

The results obtained in the project were made public through the online publication on the present web site of:
1. seminars’ and conferences’ materials (programmes, slides and presentations)
2. collection of laws and jurisprudence at national, European and international level (a database of around 800 documents included)
3. two monographic researches (on civil nullity and on anti-money laundering)
4. an organised and reasoned interactive glossary
5. an e-learning course
6. videos, audios and photos of all events

 

All documents have been disseminated in English and some also in the original language and are freely accessible (including the database and the entire e-learning course). It has been offered wide visibility to the project’s activities and to EU co-financing through a press conference of presentation of the activities at the project’s start and a final conference. The present web site also contributes towards this direction.

 

The methodology adopted in the project has been based on the integration of knowledge-based activities (research) and training activities (learning) as well as of networking (exchange of good pratices) in order to strengthen the specific competencies acquired at national level in each and every partner country and share such competencies through the exchange and analysis of the different realities at European level. 

 
The phases of the project were identified in such a way to highlight a multidisciplinary approach in relation to the subjects addressed as well as to disseminate and implement a true culture of European Law among the Member States. The project has been constantly monitored and the activities have been evaluated internally.