[A2k] FW: [LACA] Item on criminal penalties as mentioned at today's LACA meeting

[Barbara Stratton]

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FYI with ref to IPRED2.



Barbara Stratton

Senior Policy Adviser, CILIP: the Chartered Institute of Librarians and
Information Professionals, UK

Secretary to LACA: the Libraries and Archives Copyright Alliance, UK
www.cilip.org.uk/laca



Resource Member, IFLA-CLM (International Federation of Library
Associations and Institutions - Copyright and Other Legal Matters
Committee http://www.ifla.org/III/clm/copyr.htm)



>From European Voice, 25th October 2007 http://www.europeanvoice.com/




Ruling curbs Commission ambitions on criminal law


By Judith Crosbie

European Commission proposals to set criminal penalties for breaching EU
laws have been thrown into doubt by a judgement of the European Court of
Justice (ECJ).

Member states are expected to use the ruling on Tuesday (30 October) to
challenge a proposal that would criminalise employers for hiring illegal
workers.
Further challenges are expected on proposals setting criminal penalties
for product piracy and environmental damage.
The ECJ, in a ruling issued this week (23 October), supported the
Commission's challenge to a Council of Ministers agreement on
strengthening criminal penalties for pollution from ships. The
Commission had argued that the EU law should not have been decided by
the member states agreeing among themselves but on a proposal from the
Commission, with the participation of the European Parliament. The
judges agreed, but they added a caveat that the European Community was
"not competent, at the present time, to lay down binding rules on the
type and level of criminal penalty which the member states must provide
for in their national law".
It is this aspect of the ruling which will strengthen the position of
those member states which are opposed to the Commission's attempts to
lay down minimum penalties.