The EU justice and home affairs ministers today agreed to amend the Council decision on the European Crime Prevention Network (EUCPN).

Sweden took, together with ten other member states, the initiative to amend the Council decision since an evaluation presented in the spring found that the EUCPN has not achieved its full potential. The amended Council decision means that the EUCPN will be able to focus on its core activities: gathering, analysing and sharing knowledge about crime and crime prevention methods.

“There are high expectations from the EU citizens to cooperate more within the EU to prevent and combat crime.  Naturally it is important to investigate serious crimes and bring perpetrators to justice.  But it is of course equally important to do what we can to prevent the crime from being committed in the first place. We have to devote more of our time to gathering knowledge about the nature of crime and effective methods to prevent it," says Minister for Justice Beatrice Ask.