EU must be cautious but coherent on criminal penalties

3.46.55pm BST (GMT +0100) Wed 14th Jun 2006

Liberal Democrat European justice spokeswoman Baroness Sarah Ludford MEP has welcomed a European Parliament report about the limits of EU involvement in criminal penalties.

Last September a European Court judgment said the EU could pass legislation - which has to be agreed by governments and MEPs - for criminal penalties necessary to enforce certain core EU policies. This introduces both EU-wide consistency and more democracy in that directly elected MEPs would have to agree. Sarah Ludford said:

"There is no question of the EU directly enforcing criminal sanctions against individuals. That is a job for national authorities.

"But it is right that when criminal sanctions for eg pollution spillages at sea are agreed on at European level, this should be done in a properly accountable and democratic EU framework.

"It is then up to individual countries such as the UK, which retain the primary responsibility for putting into force the laws they've jointly agreed in Brussels, to decide how they should implement this at home.

"MEPs and MPs need to talk more about how we can get maximum EU-level coherence without infringing on the responsibility of national governments and parliaments like Westminster for the criminal justice system in general.