Euroshore : protecting the EU financial system from the exploitation of financial centres and off-shore facilities by organised crime : final report

摘要

This report presents the results of research conducted as part of the Project "EUROSHORE. Protecting the EU financial system from the exploitation of financial centres and offshore facilities by organised crime" awarded by the European Commission under Programme Falcone 1998 and carried out by TRANSCRIME, Research Centre of the University of Trento (Italy) in co-operation with CERTI – University Bocconi (Italy) and the Faculty of Law, Erasmus University of Rotterdam (The Netherlands). The project proposal was prepared in August 1998, following Recommendation no. 30 of the EU Action Plan against organised crime of April 1997. In implementation of this recommendation, Member States "should examine how to take action and provide adequate defences against the use by organised crime of financial centres and offshore facilities, in particular when they are located in places subject to their jurisdiction. With respect to those located elsewhere, the Council should develop a common policy, consistent with the policy conducted by Member States internally, with a view to prevent the use thereof by criminal organisations operating within the Union". The aim of the research reported here was to foster the development of the promising path of ‘organised crime prevention’ that the European Union has undertaken with its Action Plan and the Forum “Towards a European Strategy to Prevent Organised Crime” held in the Hague on 4-5 November 1999. Its rationale is that there is a broad area of regulatory measures that could be used to hamper the growth of organised crime. This action, if properly pursued, would be less costly and more effective in terms of reducing the amount of organised crime than crime control action alone, with which, however, it should be combined. Acting on the regulation of the arkets infiltrated and exploited by organised crime requires understanding and explanation of why and how the demand of organised crime is matched by opportunities which facilitate its development. The policy implications of this understanding should be a re-regulation of the mechanisms that produce such opportunities.