CCICJ

CCICJ establishes a transnational focal point of competence and in-depth knowledge with a theoretically soundly founded and well-established, yet transferable practice-oriented approach on EU primary law aspects in the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice with a view to its constantly developing parameter value money-laundering, its governing institutional framework (namely the Member States’ Financial Intelligence Units, FIUs) and other derivative secondary legislative measures on anti-money-laundering (AML) measures. The integration and inter-agency aspects of these substantive and institutional AML measures at supranational level in the given AFSJ framework allows enhanced cross-sectoral investigations in the light of the Europol Regulation of 2022 and the European Financial and Economic Crime Centre.

Priorities & Goals

The Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence Criminal Investigations and Criminal Justice aims to generate knowledge and insights in support of EU policy-making and strengthen the role of the EU within Europe and in a globalized world.

In order to be successful, CCICJ will:

identify the legal framework and procedures for normal operation and organizational boundaries in the AFSJ,
pave the way for developing new curricular content and research areas,
prepare evidence-based materials for dissemination and policy recommendations.

CCICJ Taught Programme Units

With this priority the CCICJ aims at: promoting excellence in teaching and research in the field of European Union studies worldwide; teaching specialised EU subjects in the sphere of the AFSJ to students who are not yet well-equipped with relevant knowledge for their future jobs and duties; transfering own and third-party research results of projects financed by the EU in the topical fields addressed by CCICJ .

CCICJ Topical Research and Curricular - Recommendation and Development

For this, the CCICJ will establish four topical interdisciplinary research groups, consisting of scientific experts and practitioners from all relevant areas, coming from the EU and relevant global countries. The promotion of young talents is a particular focus here, and students (from BA to PhD) are also going to be integrated for this purpose. Each of the four research groups is led by an expert from the CCICJ core team and works on one main topic. The groups have access to organisa-tional support as well as other experts and network partners. In particular, the exchange between the groups is also encouraged.

CCICJ Project, Process and Quality Management

As an Erasmus+: Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence, the CCICJ aims in planning, optimizing, monitoring and managing the resources and work necessary to deliver the goals and priorities in an effective and efficient way. Therefore, the CCICJ establishes a monitoring system and conducts the management and coordination of all relevant aspects.

Background

The EU Erasmus+ programme supports training, education, youth and sport in Europe. With the new funding period (2021-2027) the focus is on social inclusion, the green and digital transitions, and promoting young people’s participation in democratic life.[1]

The Erasmus+: Jean Monnet Actions contribute to the dissemination of knowledge about matters of the European Union, offering opportunities in the field of higher education and other fields of training.

Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence

The Jean Monnet Centres of Excellence are centres of expertise and knowledge on European Union topics. They bring together the expertise and competences of high-level experts with the aim of developing synergies between the different disciplines and resources of European Studies. They play a key role in reaching students from faculties that do not normally deal with EU issues, as well as policy makers, civil society and the general public. They also offer experts the opportunity to develop joint transnational activities. Jean Monnet Centres of Excellence are run by a higher education institution and may involve the collaboration of several faculties/departments and also include other organisations specialising in EU studies. The centres of excellences should lead research activities on specific EU topics, organise and coordinate their institution’s resources related to European Union studies and collect, analyse and publish the most relevant results.

The important public relations work and outreach of the centres can include: Communication and information events at European and national level, Lectures, seminars or workshops with policy makers at local, regional and national level and with civil society, participation in specific learning exercises at school and vocational training level, networking with other organisations and individuals supported by Jean Monnet Actions, publicising their activities as open educational resources.

Objectives

O-1: CCICJ has been developed and designed to offer additional educational opportunities at university level to contribute to spreading knowledge on EU integration matters in the field of security and safety. Based on joint research, tailor-made information for specific target groups is to be tested, made available, disseminated and promoted throughout Europe.

O-2: The dynamic and constantly evolving topical scope of CCICJ – security policies – cannot be appropriately addressed without integrating historic EU aspects, aims, organisational structures and operational functions. The same accounts for the human and fundamental rights dimension of this topic, i.e. Art. 2 EUT is to be considered as well as the CFR and the Council of Europe’s Human Rights Convention’s (ECHR).

O-3: As Art 6 CFR and Art. 5 ECHR are providing for the Right to Liberty and Security, there is a direct and immanent link between the regulatory/organisational scopes of O-1 und O-2 and the aim of CCICJ to spread knowledge on security and safety policies as to daily live matters of EU citizens, incl. its human/fundamental rights dimension. The concept of predicate offences – applied in some AFSJ Member States, but skipped in other ones, e.g. recently in Germany) – brings measures to combat organised crime and AML even closer to the people than purely ‘policing’ and ‘rule of law’ aspects could: Investigations in this field are subject to law enforcement/authoritative actors but also to CSO and media involvement and to cross-sectoral, multi-agency responses that rely on active involvement of the people, economic operators and CSOs.

O-4: The interplay of public and private mandated actors in the safety and security sector, and the citizens, must be subject to enhanced cooperation among policy- and operational decision-makers; this counts esp. where such issues as outlined in O-3 are of cross-border character (considering furthermost Art. 222 TFEU on the principle of solidarity) due to the fact that all these daily-life-matters are subject to the shared competences of the EU and the Member States (Art. 4(2) TFEU). CCICJ aims to provide hands-on and conceptual solutions for the AFSJ and the stronger integration of CSOs, commercial operators as well as the new EU AML-Agency to support domestic FIUs.
In doing so, CCICJ has positive impacts on the EU-based policy-making system: As CCICJ is aware of the normative and competences structures in the EU, the Member States’ national, regional and local levels must be targeted as well – they are where the AFSJ cooperation mechanisms must provide the best response to money laundering along with its adverse effects on the people, functioning of institutions, economy, and the concept of liberal democracy.

Performing Organisation

Since December 2023, CCICJ is implemented by the Institute of Police and Security Studies IPoS.

CCICJ is co-funded by the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) under GA No. 101126854.

Get INVOLVED

The CCICJ is looking forward to working with experienced experts and practitioners, interested organisations and committed students for our research groups, our network and the PhD Intake Programme.

If you are interested in getting involved, collaborating and working with us, have any questions to our research, trainings or the PhD Intake programme, or any suggestions – please get in touch directly with us at info@ipos-research.eu

Disclaimer:
The content of present website represents the views of the authors only and is their sole responsibility. The European Commission does not accept any responsibility for use that may be made of the information it contains.