Initiative of the French Republic and the Kingdom of Sweden with a view to the adoption of a Council Decision setting up a European crime prevention network
Date: 2000-12-16
Institutions: France, Sweden
Subjects: EU Member State, France, Sweden, cooperation policy, crime, fight against crime

16.12.2000

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 362/15

II

(Preparatory Acts pursuant to Title VI of the Treaty on European Union)

Initiative of the French Republic and the Kingdom of Sweden with a view to the adoption of a
Council Decision setting up a European crime prevention network

(2000/C 362/13)

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

HAS DECIDED AS FOLLOWS:

Having regard to the Treaty on European Union and in
particular Article 34(2)(c) thereof,

Article 1

Having regard to the initiative of the French Republic and the
Kingdom of Sweden,

Having regard to the Opinion of the European Parliament,

A European Crime Prevention Network, hereinafter referred to
as (cid:145)the Network(cid:146) is hereby set up.

The Network shall have a Governing Board and a General
Secretariat.

Whereas:

Article 2

(1) The Vienna Action Plan called for crime prevention
measures to be drawn up in the five years following the
entry into force of the Amsterdam Treaty.

(2) The Tampere European Council of 15 and 16 October
1999 concluded that there was a need to develop crime
prevention measures,
to exchange best practices and to
strengthen the network of competent national authorities
for crime prevention, as well as cooperation between
national organisations specialising in this field, specifying
this cooperation could have as its chief priorities
that
juvenile, urban and drug-related crime. To this end, a
study of the possibility of a programme financed by the
Community was called for.

(3) Several significant seminars and conferences on crime
prevention, most notably those held in Stockholm in
1996, in Noordwijk in 1997, in London in 1998 and in
the Algarve in 2000 called for the establishment of a
network within the European Union to develop coop-
eration on crime prevention. This High Level Conference
in the Algarve also highlighted the need for a multidis-
ciplinary, joint approach to crime prevention.

(4) Society as a whole must be involved in the development of
a partnership between national, local and regional public
authorities, non-governmental organisations,
the private
sector and citizens. The causes of crime are multiple and
must therefore be dealt with by measures at different levels,
by different groups in society,
in partnership with the
players involved who have different powers and experience,
including civil society.

(5) Since the majority of the crimes of which citizens of the
European Union are victims are committed in urban areas,
urban policies linked with crime prevention must also be
taken into consideration,

The Network shall consist of contact points designated by

1.
each Member State.

The contact points, of which the number per Member State
shall not exceed three, shall represent, at the least, the national
authorities competent for crime prevention in its many aspects
on the one hand and researchers or academics specialising in
this field on the other. Others involved in the field, particularly
non-governmental organisations,
local authorities and the
private sector may also be represented.

The Commission shall also designate a contact point. A
Europol contact point shall participate in the Network for
the aspects which concern it.

2.
Each Member State shall ensure that its contact points
have sufficient knowledge of at least one other official language
of the Union to enable them to communicate with the contact
points in the other Member States.

Article 3

The Network shall contribute to developing the varied
1.
aspects of crime prevention at Union level and shall support
crime prevention activities at local and national level.

2.

In particular, the Network shall:

(a) report to the Council on its activities each year, through the
competent working bodies, and state the areas for priority
action in its work programme for the following year. This
report shall be forwarded to the European Parliament.
Although it will
the
Network will pay particular attention to the fields of
juvenile, urban and drug-related crime;

criminality,

cover all

types of

C 362/16

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

16.12.2000

(b) be available to the Council and to the Commission to assist
them at their request with any question relating to crime
prevention, and particularly to take account of preventive
aspects of legislative acts, decisions and other instruments
and to assist the Council and the Commission to identify
effective strategies for crime prevention, particularly in
connection with the implementation of
the Community
programme relating to crime prevention;

(c) facilitate

and

cooperation,

of
contacts
information and experience between Member States and
between national organisations,
as between
Member States and the Commission, other constituent
entities of the Council and other groups of experts and
networks specialising in crime prevention matters;

exchanges

as well

(d) collect

information on existing
evaluation thereof
the

crime
and
analyse
prevention activities,
and the
analysis of best practices, and collect and analyse existing
data on criminality and on its development in the Member
States,
in order to contribute to consideration of future
national and European decisions. The Network shall also
assist the Council and the Member States in replying to
questionnaires on crime and crime prevention;

(e) contribute to identifying and developing the main areas for
research, training and evaluation in the crime prevention
field;

(f) organise

conferences,

seminars, meetings

activities designed to promote consideration of
specific matters, and to disseminate the results thereof;

and other
these

(d) endeavour to use and promote the results of projects

funded through Community programmes.

Article 5

1.

The Network shall hold its first meeting on . . . (*)

2.
It shall meet at least once every six months on the invi-
tation of the Presidency of the Council at that time. Other
the Council or
meetings may be called at
Commission.

the request of

3.
The Governing Board of the Network shall consist of the
representatives of the Member States who have been designated
as contact points from the national authorities.

It shall be chaired by the representative of the Member State
which is holding the Presidency of the European Union at the
time.

It shall meet at least once each Presidency. It shall draw up its
Rules of Procedure, to be adopted by unanimity.

The General Secretariat for the Network shall be provided

4.
by the Commission.

5.
The Governing Board shall decide the Network’s annual
inform the Council and Commission
programme and shall
thereof. It shall draw up the annual report on the activities
of
shall be forwarded to the
European Parliament, the Council and the Commission. The
Governing Board’s decisions shall be adopted by unanimity.

the Network. The report

(g) organise

the

annual

award of

the European Crime

Prevention Prize.

The Network shall be financed from the general budget of

6.
the European Union.

Article 4

To accomplish its tasks, the Network shall:

(a) favour a multidisciplinary approach and take urban policies

connected with crime prevention into consideration;

(b) be in close contact with crime prevention bodies, as well as
research institutions and non-governmental organisations in
the Member States;

Article 6

The Council shall evaluate the activities of the Network in the
two years following the adoption of this Decision.

Article 7

This Decision shall take effect on the day of its adoption.

Done at Brussels, . . .

(c) set up and operate a website, containing its regular reports
a

information,

particularly

any

and
other
compendium of best practices;

useful

For the Council

The President

. . .

(*) Three months after the adoption of this Decision.