Evidence Gathering in the European Union: The Transposition of Directive 2014/41/EU into French and German Legislation

The cross-border gathering of evidence within the European Union raises a vast amount of practical questions. With adoption of the Directive 2014/41/EU on 3 April 2014, the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union try to respond to these questions by introducing the European Investigation Order in criminal matters based on the principle of mutual recognition. This article explores whether the Directive will guarantee a more performant gathering of evidence and whether the rights of the suspect are satisfyingly protected during this procedure. The author analyses these questions with the example of mutual cooperation between French and German authorities and identifies several legal and practical issues due to the heterogeneity of the national criminal procedures. This leads to the conclusion that the introduction of the principle of mutual recognition may enforce cross-border gathering of evidence but isn't a guarantor for the protection of fundamental rights and has therefore to be accompanied by the establishment of common rules concerning, especially, the execution of evidence gathering measures and the admissibility of transnational evidence.