Though each EU member state has primary responsibility for the regulation of most matters within their jurisdiction, and consequently each has its own laws, harmonisation aims to: An objective of the European Union to achieve uniformity in laws of member states is to facilitate free trade and protect citizens.
[1] Harmonisation is a process of ascertaining the admitted limits of international unification but does not necessarily amount to a vision of total uniformity.
[4] Harmonisation generally takes place on two levels of governance, the overarching body and each of the members individually.
[4] The unification and harmonisation of laws are similar in the sense that both involve approximating several legal systems and both are also oriented towards establishing some level of integration from a previous situation characterized by diversity.
That is due to the nature of harmonisation, it is designed to incorporate different legal systems under a basic framework.
This is the appeal of harmonisation, it takes into account the local factors yet applies general principles to make a consistent framework of law.
Directives require transposition into the domestic legal system of the Member State in order to become effective.
Therefore, the EU may outline the specific criminal conduct and the minimum sanctions for an offence that a Member State must criminalise within their domestic system.
The EU has assumed some competence to ensure harmonisation of laws where these address ‘particularly serious crimes with a cross-border dimension’.
So far, the legislation adopted by the EU has focused on harmonising the definition of offences, sanctions and questions of jurisdiction.
In other aspects of criminal procedure, legislation to harmonise must be unanimously decided by the Council and approved by the European Parliament.