Directive (EU) 2022/211 and Directive (EU) 2022/228

On 20 January 2021, the European Commission adopted two proposals for Directives amending two European Union (EU) instruments in the field of criminal law – Council Framework Decision 2002/465/JHA, on Joint Investigations Teams and Directive 2014/41/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 3 April 2014, regarding the European Investigation Order in criminal matters. The aim of these proposals was to ensure the alignment of the said instruments with the EU’s rules on the protection of personal data; namely with principles and provisions laid down in Directive (EU) 2016/680 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data by competent authorities for the purposes of the prevention, investigation, detection or prosecution of criminal offences or the execution of criminal penalties, and on the free movement of such data (the Data Protection Law Enforcement Directive). On 21 April 2021, Coreper agreed to start negotiations with the European Parliament on the two draft Directives based on the texts set out in Council documents 8043/21 and 8048/21. Both files were assigned to the Civil Liberties, Justice and Home affairs Committee (LIBE). On 16 July 2021, the LIBE Committee tabled two reports concerning the proposed directives amending Directive 2014/41/EU and Framework Decision 2002/465/JHA. The two proposals were discussed in the plenary of 15 September 2021 and the European Parliament decided to open interinstitutional negotiations. On 11 November 2021, during a trilogue the co-legislators agreed provisionally on the final compromise texts. During the vote on 14 December 2021, the plenary of the Parliament confirmed the texts agreed during interinstitutional negotiations in terms of the two proposals (Parliament’s position in first reading). On 25 January 2022 both acts were adopted by the Council. Finally, the first text was published in the Official Journal on 18 February 2022 and the second one on 21 February 2022.