New offence of infringement of the property interests of the EU introduced by Act No 315/2019 Coll., amending the Criminal Code
Abstract
The article analyses the provisions of Sec- tion 260 of the Czech Criminal Code, concerning the protection of financial interests of the Europe- an Union. The wording of the aforementioned pro- vision was changed by Act No. 315/2019 Coll., amending the Criminal Code, with effect from 1 December 2019.
The new law was adopted to implement into the Czech legislation a binding legal instrument of the European Union, specifi- cally Council Regulation (EU) 2017/1939 of 12 October 2017 implementing enhanced coopera- tion on the establishment of the European Public Prosecutor's Office ('the EPPO'). In this context, a new special offence was included in the Czech Criminal Code to protect the financial interests of the EU.
The author summarises the adopted amendments and points out the risk of extending criminal repression for basic forms of offences punishable irrespective of whether or not damage has actually been incurred.