Paul James S.

Bernardo

BSCRIM2-ALPHA

1. How does EUROPOL combat transnational crimes (identify 5)?

 Mutual Legal Assistance

The 1959 Convention, however, was drafted almost a half century ago. Since then, ideas regarding
how mutual assistance should be provided have changed considerably, especially in Europe, where
there has been extensive experience in this sector. There has been a clear trend towards simplifying and
speeding up mutual assistance by eliminating conditions and grounds for refusals. Since the European
Union Member States have a lot of cases in common, they have come to expect certain standards of
conduct—after all, if the central authority of one country is itself slow or sloppy in responding to
requests, it can scarcely expect others to be better when responding to its requests for assistance. In
1998, the European Union decided to adopt a set of standards on good practice in mutual legal
assistance.12 Each Member State was required to prepare, in one year’s time, a national statement of
good practice. These were then circulated among all the Member States. The idea here was that the
Member States publicly commit themselves to upholding these standards, and can be held accountable.
a. to acknowledge all urgent requests and written enquiries unless a substantive reply is sent
quickly;
b. when acknowledging requests and inquiries, to provide the name and contact details of
the authority (and, if possible, the person) responsible for executing the request;
c. to give priority to requests which have been marked “urgent”;
d. where the assistance requested cannot be provided in whole or in part, to provide an
explanation and, where possible, to offer to discuss how the difficulties might be
overcome;
e. where it appears that the assistance cannot fully be provided within any deadline set, and
this will impair proceedings in the requesting State, to advise the requesting State of this;
f. to submit requests as soon as the precise assistance that is needed has been identified,
and to explain the reasons for marking a request as “urgent” or in setting a deadline;
g. to ensure that requests are submitted in compliance with the relevant treaty or
arrangements; and
h. when submitting requests, to provide the requested authorities with the name and contact
details of the authority (and, if possible, the person) responsible for issuing the request.
 Extradition

The European Union is currently considering various options for “fast-track extradition”. These
discussions have been held within the context of the discussion on mutual recognition of decisions and
judgments in criminal matters. In regards to extradition, the goal is to have a warrant of arrest issued by
the competent authorities of one State recognized as such by the authorities of another EU State,
establishing a basis for extradition. A proposal on such a procedure is expected by the end of the year
2001.
 The United Kingdom proposal is for a “backing of warrants” scheme. The UK already today uses
such a “backing of warrants” approach with Ireland. Under this approach, the extradition request is
replaced by a simple arrest warrant, which is transmitted through the Home Office to the local court.
The local court only has to establish (1) that the person arrested is the person for whom extradition is
sought; (2) that the warrant and accompanying documentation are in order; and (3) whether any of the
restrictions on extradition apply. If none of these are a bar to extradition, the court simply notes on the
back of the warrant that this can be enforced.

 Mutual Recognition of Decisions and Judgments

Because of jurisdictional limits (and perhaps also a deep-rooted lack of confidence in the criminal
justice systems of other countries), decisions made in the investigation of organized crime cannot be
directly enforced abroad. For example, if a court in one country orders that a suspect be arrested, that
his or her assets be frozen, or that his or her house be searched for evidence, mutual legal assistance
has to be requested in order to have the decision carried out abroad. The process inevitably takes some
time—time during which the suspect can empty out his or her bank accounts and move on to a third
country.

So far, little attention has been paid to what can, in a way, be seen as a parallel to mutual legal
assistance: recognizing the validity of a decision taken by a foreign authority or court, and enforcing it as
such. The principle would enable competent authorities to quickly secure evidence, seize assets and
immobilize offenders. This would, of course, also be in the interests of the victim

 Mutual Evaluations

The Member States of the European Union have made a number of commitments to improving their
response to organized crime, and to improving international cooperation. These commitments were
undoubtedly made in good faith. However, the practical reality of investigation, prosecution and
adjudication (for example, lack of resources, and differences in priorities in different sectors and on
different levels) can mean that the work that is actually carried out remains at odds with the
commitments.
One way to diagnose what problems exist is to carry out expert reviews. The OECD has instituted a
system of mutual evaluations of Member States on measures taken to prevent and control money
laundering. These evaluations are carried out by teams of experts from different countries who, because
of their background, are able to talk as colleagues with experts and practitioners in the target country,
and ask the right questions and understand the answers they are given. This approach has been deemed
so successful that the European Union has adopted it on a broader scale. Accordingly, on 5 December
1997 the European Union decided on the establishment of a mechanism for evaluating the application
and implementation at the national level of international undertakings in the fight against organized
crime.

 COOPERATION IN THE FORMULATION OF DOMESTIC LAW AND POLICY

The global status quo:
International cooperation on the formulation of domestic law and policy is almost entirely
limited to general provisions in bilateral and multilateral treaties, and to even more general
recommendations, resolutions and declarations.

The European Union reality:

 the European Union has accepted decisions calling for criminalization of a number of offences.
The definitions are generally rather tightly drawn, and have forced countries to amend their
legislation accordingly.
 the European Union has begun cooperation in the prevention of crime, including organized
crime.
 the European Union has adopted a number of action plans and programs that have had a clear
effect on policy and practice in all the Member States.
 the cooperation in this regard has been extended to the twelve candidate countries, which are
rapidly amending their own procedural and criminal laws.
 there are signs that the European Union may be moving towards what is called the
“communitisation” of criminal law, in other words to a situation where the power to determine
the contents of criminal law is increasingly shifted from the individual Member States to the
fifteen Member States working together.

2. How does the Terrorism, Arm Smuggling, Drug Trafficking, Human Trafficking and Money
Laundering, affects the internal security of a state?

The Philippines has had a lot of transnational crimes, which has had a significant effect on its
political, economic, and social stability and security. By threat or use of force, abduction or deception,
coercion or abuse of power, or the exchange of payments or benefits for exploitation, human trafficking
is a crime. A lot of people who are trafficked are from the Philippines. They go to other countries that
have good economies to work. The Philippines is also being used as a stopover and a destination for
people who want to go there. Most of those involved in human trafficking are Filipinos, and they have
connections in both the transit and destination countries. In 1985, the Philippines first encountered
international terrorist groups trying to establish a foothold in its territory. Because of this, the
Philippines is also an excellent place to hide your money. There is a lot of money to be made in drug
trafficking in this country.
The Philippines has the second-lowest rate of software theft in Southeast Asia. Another threat to
Philippine society is the illegal trafficking of guns. Government campaigns to dismantle all private armies
have significantly decreased gunrunning transactions and firearms smuggling, but the proliferation of
loose firearms has not been slowed. As the number of crew members and passengers killed by pirates
has decreased, the Philippines has the highest number of crew members and passengers killed in 2000
piracy attacks. The ILOVEYOU virus was a notable instance of cyberterrorism involving the Philippines.
Legislation, specialized law enforcement units, and programs from various international and national
organizations have all been used to combat organized crime in the Philippines. The Philippines'
unprotected coastline, widening wealth disparity, high unemployment, proximity to drug-producing and
-exporting countries, and a lack of or ineffective laws against transnational crime are just a few of the
country's vulnerabilities to international organized crime syndicates.

3. Explain the function of EU Policy Cycle.

The Policy Cycle is a methodology adopted by the European Union in 2010 to address the most
significant criminal threats facing the EU. The Policy Cycle translates strategic objectives at the European
level into concrete operational actions against serious and organised crime. Each cycle lasts 4 years and
optimizes coordination and cooperation on the crime priorities agreed by all Member States. During the
cycle, all concerned services and stakeholders, at national and EU level, are invited to allocate resources
and mutually reinforce efforts. Emerging threats are also monitored so that they can be effectively
addressed.

The Policy Cycle has 2 main objectives: -

 To ensure effective cooperation between Member States, law enforcement agencies, EU
Institutions, EU Agencies and relevant third parties
 To deliver coherent and robust operational actions targeting the most pressing criminal threats
facing the EU.

The creation of the EU Policy Cycle consist’ of 4 steps:

1. The serious and organized crime threat assessment (SOCTA)

The SOCTA, developed by Europol, comprises a set of recommendations based on an in-depth

analysis of the major crime threats facing the EU. The Council of Justice and Home Affairs Ministers use
this recommendation to define the priorities for the Policy Cycle. At the start of the policy cycle, the
SOCTA delivers analytical findings that inform political priorities, strategic goals and operational action
plans. It identifies and assesses threats to the EU and analyses points of vulnerability to crimes as well as
the opportunities criminals create to commit them.

2. Strategic plans multi-annual strategic plans (MASPs)

are developed on the basis of the priorities defined in step 1 in order to define the strategic goals for
preventing and combating each threat. Each of these MASPs are the basis for the European
multidisciplinary platform against criminal threats (EMPACT). Since 2017 a Master MASP is developed,
before all other MASPs, which describes the horizontal goals for all the threats.

3. European multidisciplinary platform against criminal threats (EMPACT)

Each year the MASPs of all the priorities are translated in operational action plans (OAPs) in order to
combat and prevent crimes in the areas that have been assigned by step 1 and 2. Each priority therefore
has an EMPACT project which executes the decided actions. The Member States and EU organizations
work in a coordinated fashion to implement each OAP. Each of these EMPACT projects is led by a driver
and co-driver (Member States choose these amongst themselves) and all other Member States can
become actively involved into the different EMPACT projects if they wish to.

4. Evaluation
Throughout the Policy Cycle, the effectiveness of the OAPs and their impact on the priority threats
are reviewed by COSI (Standing Committee on operational cooperation on internal security). This allows
the EMPACT projects to evaluate, monitor and adjust (if required) the effort in tackling the priority
threats.
Furthermore, at the end of the Policy Cycle a final evaluation study is carried out by an independent
external evaluator in close cooperation with the monitoring group of experts. The report should contain
a number of recommendations and recommended actions to make the next EU Policy Cycle more
effective, efficient and streamlined, and to balance the burden placed on different categories of
stakeholders.

REFERENCES:

Gana Severino H. Jr., S. H. G. J. H. G. (2002, October). Current situation of and countermeasures

against Transnational Organized Crime in the Republic of the Philippines (from UNAFEI
Annual Report for 2000 and resource material series no. 59, P 429-451, 2002, -- see NCJ-
200221). US Department of Justice. Retrieved April 30, 2022, from
https://www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/abstracts/current-situation-and-
countermeasures-against-transnational-0

EUCPN multiannual strategy 2021-2025. EUCPN. (n.d.). Retrieved April 30, 2022, from
http://eucpn.org/document/eucpn-multiannual-strategy-2021-2025

International cooperation against Transnational organized ... - UNAFEI. (n.d.). Retrieved April
30, 2022, from
https://www.unafei.or.jp/publications/pdf/RS_No59/No59_29VE_Joutsen3.pdf

Main reports. Europol. (n.d.). Retrieved April 30, 2022, from

https://www.europol.europa.eu/publications-events/main-reports

National Archives and Records Administration. (n.d.). Transnational organized crime: A growing
threat to national and international security. National Archives and Records
Administration. Retrieved April 30, 2022, from
https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/administration/eop/nsc/transnational-crime/
threat