Gemensamma utredningsgrupper - en rättssäker och effektiv brottsbekämpning?

EU’s competence has changed during the past two decades which has affected the judicial cooperation in preventing and combating crime between the Member States. Both the Council and the Member States has stressed that crime has increased and become more international. They have emphasized that terrorism, smuggling and drug trafficking easily can cross the States borders and therefore threatens the citizens’ freedom to live safe and secure in the EU. Some has expressed the need for effective law enforcement, effective crime prevention and requirements of legal instruments to ensure that the Member States can collaborate with each other to combat crime. EU has responded to these requirements and developed ways for the Member States to cooperate on. Part of the cooperation between the Member States is to set up joint investigation teams, so that the law enforcement authorities can collaborate across state borders. When states uses joint investigation teams they may operate on each other’s territory in order to combat and prevent crime. The requirement of efficiency and stronger cooperation therefore affect the states sovereignity and the rule of law. The purpose if this paper is to investigate the legal framework for joint investigation teams on the basis of the relevant instruments between the Member States to which Sweden is bound. The paper will also examine the underlying motives of the enhanced cooperation and how it responds to the rule of law and the protection of human rights and freedoms. The legal framework of the cooperation with joint investigation teams is constituted by the framework decision 2002/465/JHA on joint investigation teams, the European Convention of 2000 and national law. In the cooperation, the interest of preventing and combating crime collides with the rule of law as a protection for the citizens right to private and family life. The analysis concludes that EU could use its capacity to harmonize the criminal law between the Member States and thus improve the rule of law as a protection of the citizens right to private and family life. When EU uses its capacity, the Union must respect the Member States’ legal traditions. Therefore, there must be space for the Member States to weigh these interests against each other in relation to their respective legal traditions in their national legal systems.