Recital 40

(40) Penalty levels imposed should be further approximated and the effectiveness of such levels should be fostered through introducing common aggravating circumstances that reflect the gravity of the criminal offence committed. The notion of ‘aggravating circumstances’ should be understood either as facts enabling the judge to pronounce more severe sentences for the same criminal offence than the sentence normally imposed without such facts, or as the possibility to treat several criminal offences cumulatively in order to increase the level of penalty. Therefore, Member States are not obliged to provide for specific aggravating circumstances where national law already provides for separate criminal offences that can lead to more severe penalties.

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Source: EUR-Lex CELLAR · retrieved 2026-09-04 · Text as adopted (Official Journal); later amendments are not incorporated in this text.