Case C‑601/14

European Commission

v

Italian Republic

(Failure of a Member State to fulfil obligations — Directive 2004/80/EC — Article 12(2) — National compensation schemes for victims of violent intentional crime guaranteeing fair and appropriate compensation — National scheme not covering all violent intentional crimes committed on the national territory)

Summary — Judgment of the Court (Grand Chamber), 11 October 2016

1.        Actions for failure to fulfil obligations — Disregard of the obligations imposed by a directive — Defences — Challenge to the lawfulness of the directive — Inadmissibility — Limits — Non-existent act

(Arts 258 TFEU, 259 TFEU, 263 TFEU and 265 TFEU)

2.        Police and judicial cooperation in criminal matters — Directive 2004/80 — Compensation for victims of violent intentional crime — Obligation on Member States to establish compensation schemes for victims — National scheme not covering all such crimes — Failure to fulfil obligations

(Council Directive 2004/80, Art. 12(2))

1.      See the text of the decision.

(see paras 33, 34)

2.      A Member State fails to fulfil its obligations under Article 12(2) of Directive 2004/80/EC relating to compensation to crime victims by failing to adopt all the measures necessary to guarantee the existence, in cross-border situations, of a compensation scheme for victims of all violent intentional crimes committed on its territory.

That provision is intended to guarantee to Union citizens the right to fair and appropriate compensation for the injuries they suffer on the territory of the Member State in which they find themselves in exercising their right to free movement, by requiring each Member State to introduce a compensation scheme for victims of any violent intentional crime committed on its territory.

As regards the determination of the intentional and violent nature of a crime, although the Member States have, in principle, the competence to define the scope of that concept in their domestic law, that competence does not, however, permit them to limit the scope of the compensation scheme for victims to only certain violent intentional crimes, lest it render redundant Article 12(2) of Directive 2004/80.

Moreover, although the system of cooperation established by Directive 2004/80 solely concerns access to compensation in cross-border situations, it does not however exclude that Article 12(2) of that directive requires each Member State, for the purposes of securing the objective pursued by it in such situations, to adopt a national scheme guaranteeing compensation for victims of any violent intentional crime on its territory.

(see paras 45, 46, 49, 52, operative part 1)