Court of Justice 8 December 2022, C-583/22 PPU (Criminal proceedings against MW.)

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In this Opinion (Case C‑583/22 PPU), Advocate General Szpunar addresses the interpretation of Article 3(5) of Framework Decision 2008/675/JHA, which concerns the obligation of Member States to take into account, in new criminal proceedings, prior convictions handed down in other Member States where the offence subject to the new proceedings was committed before those prior convictions were handed down. The AG opines that, in the absence of adequate national transposition measures and where national law imposes a ceiling on cumulative custodial sentences, Article 3(5) does not permit a national court to disregard that ceiling on the basis of the Framework Decision alone, since the provision lacks direct effect and an interpretation to the contrary would aggravate the defendant's sentence in breach of the principles of legal certainty and non-retroactivity. As to the second question, the AG further opines that the second subparagraph of Article 3(5) does not require the national court to establish in a clearly quantified manner the disadvantage resulting from the impossibility of forming a cumulative sentence when otherwise taking prior foreign convictions into account.AI