1) Member States shall ensure that, in the course of criminal proceedings, victims are entitled to obtain a decision on compensation by the offender, within a reasonable time, except where national law provides for such a decision to be made in other legal proceedings. Member States shall ensure that, in the course of criminal proceedings, victims are entitled to obtain a decision on compensation by the offender, within a reasonable time.

2) Member States shall promote measures to encourage offenders to provide adequate compensation to victims. Member States shall ensure that their competent authorities pay directly to the victim the adjudicated compensation without undue delay. The competent authorities shall be subrogated to the right of the victim in relation to the offender for the amount of the adjudicated compensation.

The European Commission has proposed amendments to this article in its proposal. VSE welcomes the robust changes proposed to this article, which aim at facilitating a victim’s effective access to compensation and at minimising delays and the administrative burden on victims. it is of vital importance that victims do not have to take proactive actions in order to get their awarded compensation and that it is the State’s responsibility to ensure payment is made in a timely manner.

However, the implementation of a system of immediate upfront payment of the full amount of adjudicated compensation for all victims of crime may be very resource intensive. This can be evidenced by the cost-benefit analysis conducted by the Dutch government when setting up its system of offender compensation.[1] As an alternative solution, VSE suggests exploring the introduction of a reasonable delay to payment of compensation by the State, and the introduction of an option for a partial payment of the adjudicated compensation, except in cases of serious crime. In doing so, the following changes to paragraph 2 of this article might be helpful: “Member States shall ensure that competent authorities pay directly to the victim the adjudicated compensation within a reasonable delay. The competent authorities shall be subrogated to the right of the victim in relation to the offender for the amount of compensation. The prepayment of adjudicated compensation can be limited for all crimes, except for serious crimes.” We also suggest adding the following paragraph 3, to ensure that Member States can decide on what “reasonable delay” and “limitation of prepayment of adjudicated compensation by Member States for some crimes”: “The conditions or procedural rules for prepayment of adjudicated compensation shall be determined by national law.”

The guarantee that all victims can request and obtain a decision on compensation may also not be appropriate in every context or may require changes to fundamental aspects of Member States’ criminal justice systems. If Member States oppose this proposed approach, we suggest adding the following in paragraph 1 of this article: “Where national law provides for such a decision to be made in other legal proceedings, the transfer of the decision to other legal proceedings shall be made only in exceptional circumstances.”

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[1] Ministerie van Justitie en Veiligheid (2021). Op verhaal komen: Naar een afgewogen, consistent en betaalbaar stelsel voor compensatie van slachtoffers van een strafbaar feit, accessed September 2023, https://open.overheid.nl/documenten/ronl-810f9bed-7ddb-4192-848a-ec1f7ca4fa75/pdf