La tutela penale degli interessi finanziari dell'Unione europea nel sistema "multilivello" delle garanzie fondamentali

The protection of the financial interests of the European Union is a primary objective ofthe European political, legal and economic program. The profound idea that inspires andconnotes the community initiatives on the subject, in fact, starts from the assumption that the European budget, as a truly shared good, must be protected with a common strategy that shows community bodies and member countries as protagonists together. The coordination between national and community authorities, both for the prevention and fight against crime, and for the conduct of lnvestigations, started with the TampereEuropean Council in 1999 and developed - over the past twenty years - in severaldirections, aimed at affirming the need of a common action. The latest landing on this direction shows, not surprisingly, the establishment of the European public Prosecutor'sOffice which is assigned the specific function of prosecuting crimes that harm (beyond acertain threshold) the financial interests of the Union.The aim pursued is to preserve common resources from systematic and structured fraud,which not only seriously harm public resources, bui also jeopardize democracy,fundamental rights and the Rule of law.The achievement of this objective, however, cannot be separated from the consolidationof protection techniques that draw on criminal law, thus imposing the overcoming of the traditional approach according to which taxation and grimes are traditional prerogativesof national sovereignty, which prevent the intervention of the union.In this sense, Directive l37Il20l7lEU, in redesigning the criminal protection of thefinancial interests of the EU, marks a significant evolution.The present work therefore intends to dwell on this provision, starting first from ahistorical-evolutionary reconstruction of the discipline relating to the fight against fraud affecting the financial interests of the European Union, to then propose an in-depthanalysis of the same and a careful investigation aimed at assessing the adequacy of thesolutions identified and the most critical aspects that, since its adoption, are emerging forthe protection of the heritage and community policies. .. [edited by Author]