The European Commission has used a recent judgment of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) to take powers to create new criminal penalties to enforce the entire body of European Union law. The ECJ Judgment (C-176/03), on 13 September, gave the EU jurisdiction to order prosecutions in cases of breaches of EU environmental law. This power has already been extended by the Commission into nine new areas of criminal law. Now the European Commons has said that it can create criminal penalties to enforce the entire body of EU law.
‘Necessary to direct the action of the Member States’
The announcement came in a Commission press release on 23 November which announced: “The Commission welcomes the ECJ judgment, recognizing the exclusive competence of the community to adopt criminal law measures to ensure the effectiveness of community law”. Ominously, it added: “In some cases, however, it is necessary to direct the action of the Member States by specifying the type of behavior which constitutes a criminal offence and the type of penalties to be applied and other criminal law measures appropriate to the area of law concerned”.
Back to Henry VIII and Bloody Mary
Organisations such as the Bruges Group, say the new power grab amounts to “the removal of our right as a nation to decide what constitutes a crime”. A UK Independence Party spokesman said: “The Commission will have the power to force member nations to punish offenders. If member nations do not comply, they will be hauled before the ECJ and subject to large financial penalties”. UKIP MEP Gerard Batten told the European Parliament: “Not since the time of Henry VIII has any power, other than the British Crown, possessed the right to create criminal offences in Britain, and set penalties for breaking them”. He may however have overlooked the burning at the stake of 284 Protestants in the reign of Bloody Queen Mary of heresy against Papal religious doctrines.
Batten added: “So much for the separation of powers of the executive, legislation and judiciary that has protected English freedoms for centuries! This is nothing less than a judicial coup d’etat. The Court has seized power from the member nations and handed it to the Commission”.
EU Civil Code project
Gawain Towler from the Bruges Group said: “The European Commission has taken upon itself the right to overrule the European Parliament, the Council of Ministers and national Parliaments in the field of criminal law”. He added: “The Commission has also already launched, without the slightest mandate or legal basis, a project for a European Civil Code. This is preparing the destruction of national civil legislation in fields as diverse as contract law, liability law, family law and security law. The Bureaucrats are firmly in charge”.
