UNIVERSITATEA ALEXANDRU IOAN CUZA IAI FACULTATEA DE DREPT

REFERAT

ENGLEZA JURIDIC
TEMA
Romania and the European justice

ndrumtor
Lect. Dr. Norbert Adrian Poruciuc

Student
Dasclu Andreea Isabela 1 IFR

2010

Romania and the European justice

Before admission into the European Union, Romania had to make some steps in order to become a security provider, not only a security risk, in this context being constituted a joined force across the systems of justice from the member country and other European and world states and organizations, named Eurojust. Eurojust was established as a result of a decision taken by the European Council of Tampere, held in October 1999. The European Council held a special meeting dedicated to the creation of an area of freedom, security and justice in the European Union; this would be achieved by concentrating on establishing a more uniform immigration and asylum policy based on solidarity and on the reinforcement of the fight against trans-border crime by consolidating cooperation among authorities. To reinforce the fight against serious organised crime, the European Council, in its Conclusion 46, agreed that Eurojust should be set up, composed of national prosecutors, magistrates, or police officers of equivalent competence, detached from each Member State according to their own legal systems. On 14 December 2000, a provisional judicial cooperation unit was set up under the name Pro-Eurojust, operating from the Council building in Brussels. This was Eurojust's forerunner, whose purpose was to be a sort of round table of prosecutors from all Member States, where

Eurojusts concepts would be tried and tested. Pro-Eurojust started work on 1 March 2001 under the Swedish Presidency of the European Union. The attacks of 11 September showed that the phenomenon of terrorism was not limited to the national or regional sphere and that the fight against terrorism must be coordinated in the widest international context. This thought served as a catalyst to setting up a judicial coordination unit, and Eurojust was established in 2002 by Council Decision 2002/187/JHA. On 29 April 2003, Eurojust moved to its final seat, in The Hague (NL). Shortly after its establishment, Eurojust faced the challenge of the European Union enlargement: in May 2004, ten new National Members joined the College, and in January 2007 two more were added, bringing the total number to 27. Since the enlargement, Eurojust has been very active in working towards signing cooperation agreements allowing the exchange of judicial information and personal data. Agreements were concluded with Europol, OLAF, CEPOL, the European Judicial Training Network, UNODC, Iber-RED, Iceland, Romania, Norway, the USA, Croatia, Switzerland, and fYROM. Liaison prosecutors from Norway and the USA are permanently based at Eurojust. As a result, Romania is now part of the agreement, after the official sign at Brussels in 02 December 2005. The treaty was signed, for Eurojust, by Michael G. KENNEDY, President of the College of Eurojust and for Romania, by Monica Luisa MACOVEI, Minister of Justice at that time. The competent authority of Romania for the execution of this Agreement is the Romanian Public Ministry, represented by the Prosecutor's Office attached to the High Court of Cassation and Justice. Practically, Romania shall notify Eurojust, simultaneous with the
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transfer of information at the latest, of the purpose for which the information is supplied and of any restrictions on its use. On its behalf, Eurojust shall notify Romania, simultaneous with the transfer of information or before such transfer, of the purpose for which the information is supplied an do of any restrictions on its use. In this context, presented as a great achievement is a case from 2006 between Romania and the United Kingdom registered at Eurojust, involving an organized criminal network trafficking children from Romania to the UK, with the aim of exploiting them to commit crimes, mainly stealing and begging. This form of traffic of human beings is quite unusual, and does not fall under the Palermo Convention. The children were recruited from poor communities in rural areas. The members of the criminal group arranged for the childrens accommodation and transport, obtained the travel documents, organized and supervised the criminal activities in the UK and collected the money obtained by the victims. Eurojust is coordinating several meetings between the UK judicial authorities and the Romanian prosecutors of the Organized Crime and Terrorism Investigation Directorate (DIICOT). A Joint Investigating Team (JIT) was set up in 2008; the JIT Agreement was signed at Eurojust on 01 September 2008. The purpose was, through the intervention and facilitation of Eurojust, to coordinate arrests of leaders of the organized crime network, to confiscate their property and to obtain important means of evidence from the destination country and vice versa, and to prosecute the members of the network and send them to trial. The JIT allowed the establishment of a common plan of action between the national and international actors involved, with Europol providing analytical support and Eurojust clarifying the differences between the two legal systems and advising on where best to prosecute, taking into consideration the different evidentiary requirements of the two
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countries. Due to the differences between civil and common law systems, additional assistance from Eurojust had been requested. Some criminals appeared before the UK courts in 2009. On 08 April 2010, a large operation was organized in Romania, with the support of 120 Romanian police officers and 200 gendarmes, together with 26 officers from the London Metropolitan Police and 2 intelligence analysts from Europol. They conducted 34 simultaneous home searches. As a result, 27 people are prosecuted for trafficking in minors, participation in an organized criminal group and money laundering, 17 being currently under arrest. So far, more than 160 victims, aged between 7 and 15 years, have been identified. Similar cases are brought as evidence and widely exposed in mass-media for explaining the expulsions of Romanian citizens from France, the procedure being used in other similar circumstances in order to get reed of undesirable immigrants, especially from Romania. As a result, to be Romanian abroad is not simple. Even as tourist travelling in the Schengen space we are not desired more to the reaches table of Europe as we were twenty years ago, when we were classified as a nation of swan eaters, after the demonstration of survival technique from Austria of some ethnic group from our country. No one perceives at present Romanians as partners, including in justice, even more, we have reserved a position of obedience, as a country which exports insecurity towards European countries. How could we escape of these perception is not yet a problem we can solve, especially because we appear not to care, even in high power places people being preoccupied with other more important matters. Until our politicians will attend the problem, we can only be happy that we a not so bad, if only look at Operation Koala, began in 2006,
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when a child abuse video was discovered in Australia. This particular video had been produced in Belgium. A Belgian perpetrator and two victims were identified. Consequently, the sole producer of the material, a 42 year old Italian national, was arrested. He was running a website on which he sold over 150 self-made, sexually explicit videos of underage girls. This business had been running for a year and a half, generating considerable profits from around 2.500 customers worldwide. The information from Australia was routed via Interpol to Europol and Belgian authorities. Success was achieved in this operation by the provision of valuable data by Member States and Interpol and crime analysis for more than a year carried out by specialists in online child sex abuse cases at Europol and the judicial co-ordination carried out by Eurojust. The abusive material was mainly produced in the mans private studio in Ukraine. The customers were also able to order tailor-made videos. Requests on how to pose were also given and some customers even travelled to the studio to attend the video shoots or to make their own private videos. Shortly before the suspect was due to move permanently to Ukraine, the Italian national police in Bologna arrested him. After his arrest, the Italian authorities forwarded all the digitalized material, including customer details, to Europol. The material was analyzed and disseminated to the countries in which customers were identified. Eurojust and Europol invited representatives from 28 countries to several operational meetings in The Hague. At Eurojust, the Belgian and Italian National Members took the initiative to co-ordinate, on a judicial level, all the countries involved. This remarkable level of co-operation with all Eurojust National Members, addressing their national authorities to follow the deadlines established for the common operations, contributed to the success of the joint Europol-Eurojust operation. Subsequent investigations were initiated by the national authorities,
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which led to a significant number of arrests and the seizure of a considerable amount of child abuse material. 23 children between 9 and 16 years of age have been identified. Amongst those arrested were several persons working in trusted positions, such as school teachers and swimming instructors. In this coordinated action, 2.500 purchasers of child pornography in 19 countries were identified; thousands of computers, videos and photographs were seized, and more than a million files and pictures were found. The investigations and prosecutions are still ongoing in and outside the European Union. After this development involving child abuse, the case with children from Romania used by grownups to steal or to bag seems to be a minor, even if it is a concern to be in attended by the authorities. As a matter of fact, the problem issued from Romania is something less incriminatory, but more deranging, because involves a larger group of people, not only the psychically disordered persons that consume child pornography, but every person walking or driving on the streets. In this line of ideas we may not be the worse can happen, but we are surely the most visible in the sight painted after 1989. As a result we are one of the last among European nations which have received the right to travel without visas in Europe and we are perceived to have a long way to travel before becoming real Europeans.

Bibliography:
1. 2. 3.

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/ http://www.eurojust.europa.eu/ http://www.europol.europa.eu