The power to punish is traditionally seen as an essential prerogative of the national state. Over the last three decades, judicial and standard-setting bodies of the Council of Europe (CoE) have sought increasingly, at a regional level, to monitor and control the power of European states to punish. In parallel, the European Union (EU) has become an increasingly important penal actor, fostering a common approach to transnational forms of criminality, as well as seeking judicial cooperation between EU member states in order to deal with a wider range of crimes. Little attention has been paid, however, to the interactions, coherence or discrepancies between the CoE’s and the EU’s bodies and policies. Therefore, we analyse the inter-relationship of the CoE and EU penal and prison policies. We focus on the instruments that can be used to limit European states’ powers to punish, but also, particularly in the case of the EU, on countervailing forces resulting from policies conducted in the field of terrorism and from countries hit by populism. Finally, we develop the concept of ‘two Europes’, which encapsulates not only the discrepancies between the approaches adopted by the CoE and the EU towards human rights moderation of European prison and penal policies but also wider penal policy differences between a modern, liberal democratic, humanistic Europe and a nationalistic Europe conducting harsh penal policies, increasing its margin of appreciation and using its sovereignty in order to avoid implementing such blurred policies.

传统上，惩罚权被视为民族国家的基本特权。在过去的三十年中，欧洲委员会（CoE）的司法和标准制定机构在区域级别上日益寻求监视和控制欧洲国家的惩罚权。同时，欧洲联盟（EU）已成为越来越重要的刑事行为者，它促进了对付跨国犯罪形式的共同方法，并寻求欧盟成员国之间的司法合作以应对更广泛的犯罪。但是，对于欧洲委员会与欧盟机构和政策之间的相互作用，连贯性或差异很少关注。因此，我们分析了欧洲法院与欧盟刑法和监狱政策之间的相互关系。我们关注的是可以用来限制欧洲国家惩罚能力的工具，但是，特别是在欧盟的情况下，我们关注的是恐怖主义领域的政策以及受民粹主义打击的国家所产生的反补贴力量。最后，我们提出了“两个欧洲”的概念，它不仅包含了欧洲委员会和欧盟在缓和欧洲监狱和刑法方面的人权方面所采用的方法之间的差异，而且还涵盖了现代，自由民主国家之间更广泛的刑法差异。 ，人文主义的欧洲和民族主义的欧洲采取严厉的刑罚政策，提高其升值幅度并利用其主权，以避免实施这种模糊的政策。关于在恐怖主义领域采取的政策以及受民粹主义打击的国家所产生的反作用力量。最后，我们提出了“两个欧洲”的概念，它不仅涵盖了欧洲委员会和欧盟在人权缓和欧洲监狱和刑法方面采取的方法之间的差异，而且还涵盖了现代，自由民主国家之间更广泛的刑法差异，人文主义的欧洲和民族主义的欧洲采取严厉的刑罚政策，提高其升值幅度并利用其主权，以避免实施这种模糊的政策。关于在恐怖主义领域采取的政策以及受民粹主义打击的国家所产生的反作用力量。最后，我们提出了“两个欧洲”的概念，它不仅涵盖了欧洲委员会和欧盟在人权缓和欧洲监狱和刑法方面采取的方法之间的差异，而且还涵盖了现代，自由民主国家之间更广泛的刑法差异，人文主义的欧洲和民族主义的欧洲采取严厉的刑罚政策，提高其升值幅度并利用其主权，以避免实施这种模糊的政策。