EU nations to compensate victims of violent crime
The European Commission in Brussels today ordered EU member states to pay compensation to victims of violent crime.
The law, which will take immediate effect, does not stipulate precisely what constitutes violent crime, but says payments should be made to people suffering injury as a result.
“There needs to be access to a compensation scheme. It will be left to the member states to decide what compensation is fair and appropriate,” said EU spokesman Frisco Roscam Abbing.
Victims injured abroad will be able to file claims in their country of residence which will then be sent to authorities in the country where the crime was committed.
“This will take away enormously cumbersome administrative procedures,” Roscam Abbing said. “For the victims, it really improves their rights to get compensation for crimes committed on themselves or their family members.”
