The consolidation of European integration in the most important institutional sectors and, in particular, the abolition of obstacles impeding the free circulation of persons, goods, services and capital, has made it imperative to attain a higher level of cooperation at a pan-European level in the areas of justice and internal affairs. The elimination of the frontiers has in fact drawn increasing attention to a rather worrying paradox: the retention of juridical and regulatory barriers has allowed organised crime to exploit the incongruities which derive from the existence of the fifteen different juridical systems of Member States of the European Union.