State Secretary Martinović at Justice and Home Affairs Council

State Secretary at the Ministry of Justice and Public Administration Juro Martinović attended the meeting of the Justice and Home Affairs Council of the European Union, held in Luxembourg on 13-14 October 2022.

Among the legislative activities, the Council of Ministers assessed progress made in discussions on the revision of Directive 2008/99/EC on the protection of the environment through criminal law. The revision aims to improve the effectiveness of the existing Directive. The revision proposal defines environmental offences more precisely, adds new categories of environmental offences to the scope and introduces various new provisions, including minimum and maximum sanction levels for natural and legal persons.

Ministers were informed about the Artificial Intelligence Liability Directive and current legislative proposals.

The current situation of the European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO) was discussed as part of non-legislative activities. The EPPO undertakes investigations, carries out acts of prosecution and exercises the functions of prosecutor in the competent courts of the participating Member States, until the case has been finally disposed of. Independence and responsibility are highlighted among the main features of the EPPO, as a guarantee of an effective exercise of its functions and powers.

Furthermore, Ministers of Justice took stock of ongoing work on judicial responses and the fight against impunity regarding crimes committed in connection with Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. In order to further develop and rationalise these efforts, the Presidency has submitted draft Council Conclusions on the fight against impunity regarding crimes committed in connection with Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, and discussions of the draft Conclusions have recently begun.

Views were exchanged on judicial training and its impact on access to justice in the context of the rule of law. Many of the objectives set out in the European Judicial Training Strategy 2021-2024 have already been pursued for some time by most national judicial training providers in EU Member States. 

In the presence of the Director of the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA), opinions were exchanged on respect for fundamental rights in times of crisis, resilience of the human rights infrastructure (in particular of national institutions, the judiciary and civil society) was assessed, and what further steps should be taken to increase the resilience of human rights infrastructure to make it better equipped to handle crises.

Ministers were also informed about the first report on the application and functioning of Directive (EU) 2016/680 with regard to personal data protection in the enforcement of legislation and about the workshop on cross-border protection of vulnerable adults.
 
 

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