Bratislava, 07/07/2016 (Agence Europe) -On Thursday 7 July, the committee on civil liberties (LIBE) of the European Parliament approved the compromise reached with the Council on legal aid for persons accused or suspected of crimes or concerned by a European arrest warrant.
The general principle of the draft directive is the right of these individuals to have some of their defence costs paid by the State and establishes criteria taking account of the nature of the infringement, whether or not the person has been detained and an assessment of his or her financial means.
This legal aid, the details and level of which depend on the national law in question, should be available from the start of the criminal proceedings and throughout them, whereas the Commission's text referred only to provisional aid until the entitlement of the person in question to legal aid has been established, the EP notes in a press release.
The directive also provides for a financial means test of the person to establish whether he or she could cover the legal costs and a merit test to assess whether the legal system may have an interest in ensuring that some of the defence costs are covered by the State. The compromise was approved by 44 votes to 1. The United Kingdom and Ireland are not participating. The whole of the EP will vote on the text in October. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)