Brussels, 27/11/2013 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 26 November, Greens/EFA MEP Jan-Philipp Albrecht (Germany) welcomed the compromise reached with justice ministers on the European investigation order and described it as “a reasonable balance between ensuring the protection of legal rights and facilitating criminal investigations”.
According to the Greens, after the bitter negotiations, “the European Parliament succeeded in extracting important concessions from EU governments”. The Greens described the compromise obtained as “acceptable”. The authorities in a member state will be entitled to refuse the investigation request of another member state if it goes beyond their national law and is deemed to violate the fundamental rights of citizens. “In addition, the procedural standards are stronger than originally foreseen” in those proposed by the Council of Ministers, added Albrecht.
He also said that “further EU initiatives in the field of justice and police cooperation, as well as for a European public prosecutor, must ensure that the rights of the accused are strengthened. In particular, this must apply to legislation on data protection in criminal proceedings, legal aid and the presumption of innocence”.
The agreement reached by the Council on Tuesday, will be put to the vote at the Council of Ministers on 5 December in Brussels. The European Parliament civil liberties committee could vote on it on 5 December as well.
The proposal on the European investigation order in criminal matters was made in 2010 by seven member states (Belgium, Bulgaria, Estonia, Spain, Austria, Slovenia and Sweden). It seeks to facilitate cooperation between member states and to make investigations in different member states easier to conduct. On the basis of an investigation order issued by a member state, the police of the member state carrying out this order would be able to carry out searches or question witnesses on behalf of the country that issued the order. Reasons for refusing to carry out such an investigation order were limited by the EP. The member state receiving a request for an investigation order will have 30 days to say whether it accepts or refuses it and 90 days to gather the evidence requested. (SP/transl.fl)