Opinion of the Advocate General — ECLI:EU:C:2022:823
Date: 2022-10-20
Language of the case: German
Subject matter: Immigration and asylum policy;Principles, objectives and tasks of the Treaties;Approximation of laws;Public health;Judicial cooperation in criminal matters;Area of freedom, security and justice;Fundamental rights;Charter of Fundamental Rights
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling
Origin: Germany

Request for a preliminary ruling from the Oberlandesgericht Bamberg (Germany) lodged on 11 June 2021 – Criminal proceedings against MR (Case C-365/21) Language of the case: German Referring court Oberlandesgericht Bamberg Party to the main proceedings MR Questions referred Is Article 55 of the Convention implementing the Schengen Agreement (‘the CISA’) 1 compatible with Article 50 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union and does it continue to be valid in so far as it admits, as an exception to the prohibition of double prosecution, that a Contracting Party may, when ratifying, accepting or approving that Convention, declare that it is not bound by Article 54 of the CISA where the acts to which the foreign judgment relates constitute an offence against national security or other equally significant interests of that Contracting Party? If Question 1 is answered in the affirmative: Do Articles 54 and 55 of the CISA and Articles 50 and 52 of the Charter preclude an interpretation by the German courts of the declaration made by the Federal Republic of Germany when ratifying the CISA in relation to Paragraph 129 of the Strafgesetzbuch (German Criminal Code, Federal Law Gazette 1994, II 631) that the declaration also covers criminal organisations, such as those at issue in the main proceedings, which engage exclusively in financial crime and do not, in addition, pursue any political, ideological, religious or world-view objectives and also do not seek to gain influence by dishonest means over politics, the media, the public administration, the judiciary or the economy? ____________ 1 Convention implementing the Schengen Agreement of 14 June 1985 between the Governments of the States of the Benelux Economic Union, the Federal Republic of Germany and the French Republic on the gradual abolition of checks at their common borders (OJ 2000 L 239, p. 19).