ABSTRACT
Among European lawyers the efforts to unify penal law within the European Union member states have started early on aiming at the development of the so called European Criminal Code. There of course have been several attempts toward this unification, but still today there is no European Criminal Code, there isn't even such a draft code waiting to be approved. Bringing into attention those efforts and the idea of the development of a European Criminal Code, is the intention of this work, which is built on two pillars conceptualized in the form of two questions. Initially is dealt with the question ‘Is it possible to develop a European Penal Code’? This question is analyzed both in the theoretical plane (i.e. is it possible for the criminal law to be harmonized in 27 countries in order to develop a unique Criminal Code in the European space) and in the practical one (if the development of a European Criminal Code as a legal text is possible, will such a joint code be accepted by the European governments and citizens). The second question, which is answered in this work, is Is it time for a European Criminal Code? and it suggests that in the conditions in which the European Union presently is, does it need such a code? In order to accurately, scientifically- legally answer these questions, hermeneutic and interpretation methods are used. In a time when it is spoken for the transformation of the European Union into a confederation, to talk about a European Criminal Code, even only to stimulate the legal debate, is not a utopia.
Keywords: European union, European criminal code, Historic background, National criminal codes, General aspect, Specific aspect, Advantages.