THE NEED FOR CRIME STATISTICS AT EU LEVEL European Commission Directorate-General Justice and Home Affairs Monika Olsson

Why EU statistics? Outline: 1) Citizen perceptions 2) Political commitments 3) Existing statistics and future EU measures 4) Preview: Current work at EU level on developing comparable statistics

Perceived importance at national level Crime and safety are issues of major concern to EU citizens The Eurobarometer spring 2004, a survey of public opinion in the European Union, show that a quarter of the interviewed persons place fighting crime as one of the two most important issues facing their country.

Perceived importance at EU level The Eurobarometer survey of autumn 2003 demonstrate that, according to almost nine out of ten citizens polled, fighting terrorism and fighting organised crime and drug trafficking, should be priorities for the European Union.

Perceived added value of EU actions Special Eurobarometer survey on Justice and Home Affairs from winter 2003: 71 % of EU 15 respondents believe that prevention of and fight against crime would be more effective if it were decided jointly at EU level

Commitments at EU level The treaty on European Union Art 30 2 d requires a network on statistics Millennium Strategy recommends the elaboration of crime statistics as does the evaluation of that strategy The Dublin Declaration recommends the development of a co-ordinated EU Crime Statistics Strategy

Commitments, continued The assessment of the Tampere programme requires the improvement of comparability of statistics on crime and safety The Hague Programme; strengthening freedom, security and justice in the EU, will most likely encourage the Commission initiative to develop comparable information on crime and victimisation

Existing sources National crime statistics and national victimisation studies – compilations – varying degrees of analysis European Sourcebook of Crime and Criminal Justice – info from national correspondents International Crime Victimisation Survey (ICVS) – standardised questions

Problems International compilations of national data not comparable, could even be misleading Low comparability of levels even with time- consuming analysis and quality-assessment Victim surveys lack information on organised crime, on serious offences and on all MS, very expensive and time consuming Lack of quantitative data on organised crime

Future measures Already now continuing harmonisation of crime definitions, minimum penalties and other criminal justice measures Future financial perspectives (2007-) Growing importance of the area of Justice, Freedom and Security – Commission has proposed to devote a major share of the funds to justice and home affairs A majority of funds would be in shared management with Member States

Future measures and the need for statistics In order to prioritise measures and areas for funding… and to monitor their progress and evaluate the effectiveness, information on levels and trends in different regions is necessary

More specifically, statistics are needed to: Make possible to prioritise measures Inform risk assessments, threat assessments and vulnerability studies Inform the benchmarking of performance Evaluate effectiveness of action Enhance Europol Organised Crime Report with quantitative data Monitor and evaluate Community funding programmes

Preview: What will the EU do? The objective is to develop Community statistics on crime, victimisation and criminal justice A long-term commitment that will be developed step by step, in close cooperation between Eurostat and DG Justice and Home Affairs within the Commission, and with Europol

Preview, continued Consultation with Member States essential, as with experts in the field, time devoted to this during 2004 The establishment of an expert group by Directorate General Justice and Home Affairs, to advice the Commission when proposing next steps A long-term action plan to be presented early 2005, based on consultations with MS in two settings, summer and autumn 2004