Criminal Law Responsibility and Guaranties in the EU Common Legal Area

Despite the significant acquis and many legal instruments adopted so far at the European Union (EU) level, the actual situation of judicial cooperation in criminal matters – as showed in annual reports of the Commission – is far from being fully satisfactory. Judicial cooperation in criminal matters has still to face too many obstacles, and especially the persistent lack of trust and common understanding among practitioners, which reveal the lack of full awareness of common legal ground already in place. As a result, judicial cooperation in criminal matters is still not working smoothly. A true European approach in the definition of contents and methodology of training of all legal practitioners in this field is needed in order to develop the idea of an existing common legal environment among Member States, to be fully implemented and improved. Not only general issues but also specific practical matters have to be dealt with a European perspective and follow ing an approach showing the existence of a common legal understanding, even when such issues arise only in some Member States’ legal order. The protection of the European Union’s financial interest (PIF) sector is one of the core sectors of EU, and it is to be considered as the ‘avant-garde’ of EU initiatives in criminal matters. Then, it can be dealt with as a pilot sector.