The Official Journal of the European Union has issued a decision under the Council of the European Union on prevention and settlement of conflicts of exercise of jurisdiction in criminal proceedings

Council  Framework Decision 2009/948/JHA, published in the OJEU on 15 December 2009, the Council expects the judicial cooperation body Eurojust and judicial authorities in Member States as guarantors of a court order to prevent transboundary problems of jurisdiction, although while respecting the principle of national procedural autonomy.

Thus, the decision establishes a framework for

• A procedure for establishing contact between the competent authorities of Member States, with a view to confirming the existence of parallel criminal proceedings in respect of the same facts involving the same person.
• The exchange of information, through direct consultations, between the competent authorities of two or more Member States conducting parallel criminal proceedings in respect of the same facts involving the same person, in case they already have knowledge of the existence of parallel criminal proceedings, with a view to reaching consensus on any effective solution aimed at avoiding the adverse.

The EU already has spent a long time working in cross-border cooperation in criminal matters:Civil Liberties Commission of the European Parliament spoke about to this proposal in October and the Commission adopted last month a Green Paper on better cooperation between States in criminal matters in view to the adoption of this Framework Decision.