Comparative Analysis

Abstract

The European Union has, in the past years, developed criminal legislation to protect its financial interests. The focus of the legislation has been on public spending, fraud, bribery and cybercrime. Despite the desire by the Union to establish a harmonized legal framework to curb crimes in these areas, the transposition of these measures in the Member States has faced a series of challenges. Equally, the legal basis in the Treaty of the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) has contrasted the legal philosophy in some Member States. In understanding the trends and challenges faced by the Member States in both the implementation and the transposition of EU criminal law protecting the Union's financial interests, this study performs a comparative analysis on practices employed in 11 selected Member States. The countries are Malta, Latvia, Ireland, France, Estonia, Croatia, Greece, Poland, Spain, Italy and Germany. The focus will then be on examining the issues arising from the implementation of the PIF Directive, which was adopted in July 2017 after extensive negotiations by the Member States, to further protect the financial interests of the EU.