EU Criminal Policy at a Crossroads between Effectiveness and Traditional Restraints for the Use of Criminal Law

Abstract

The article studies EU criminal policy from a constitutional perspective. Since all EU secondary law measures must be founded on a legal basis – on a specific provision of the Union's constitution – EU criminal policy is also a constitutional matter in this sense. Initially, the article clarifies what EU criminal policy is, putting it into a broader context presenting it as a public policy issue in a multi-level constitutional framework. Secondly, the article demonstrates the key elements of EU criminal policy. The article answers the questions of what the interrelationship between the choice of legal basis and the EU criminalisation principles is and whether the EU criminalisation principles are effective in terms of limiting the use of EU-level criminal law.