Case of C‑263/24, Smiliev, Judgment of 3 July 2025 (Tenth Chamber)

Framework Decision 2008/675/JHA – Taking account of previous convictions handed down in another Member State in the course of new criminal proceedings – Legal effects equivalent to previous national convictions – Framework Decision 2009/315/JHA – Exchange of information extracted from the criminal record between Member States – Concept of criminal conviction – Classification of offences under national law.

• Framework Decision 2008/675 does not preclude national legislation under which, in order to rule on criminal proceedings, the court having jurisdiction is obliged to disregard the previous convictions handed down in another Member State in respect of the person who is the subject of those proceedings for acts which do not constitute criminal offences under national law and cannot therefore be the subject, under that law, of a criminal conviction.
• According to Framework Decision 2008/675, read in conjunction with Framework Decision 2009/315, it is for the national court having jurisdiction, for the purposes of taking account of previous convictions handed down in another Member State against the person subject to the criminal proceedings before that national court, to assess whether the acts which gave rise to the previous final decisions of the courts of the other Member State, of which it became aware, were classified, in the light of the classification under the law of the other Member State, as criminal offences. That court is required to consider only those decisions and to confer on them legal effects equivalent to those which would be attached to previous national convictions on account of the commission of a criminal offence belonging to an equivalent category and giving rise to a sentence of a comparable nature and level. However, taking this into account must not result in the person concerned being treated less favourably in the proceedings in question than if the decisions had been handed down by a national court.