Brussels, 29/07/2016 (Agence Europe) - A restriction of a person's freedom of movement, such as electronic monitoring, cannot necessarily be deemed equivalent to depriving that person of their liberty, the Court of Justice of the EU found on Thursday 28 July, in the framework of a case relating to the European arrest warrant and the surrender procedures between member states.
This case (C-294/16 PPU) concerns a Polish national who was arrested in the United Kingdom after Poland issued a European arrest warrant against him. Before surrendering him to the Polish authorities, the British authorities placed him under an obligation to remain at home at night, which was verified by means of an electronic tag.
European law (framework decision 2002/584/JHA of the Council) stipulates that the period of detention resulting from the execution of the European arrest warrant must be deducted from the total custodial sentence to be served by the person concerned in the member state of issuance. On the basis of this provision, the Polish national called for the curfew period imposed upon him in the United Kingdom to be deducted from the tariff he was to serve in Poland.
Having had the matter brought to it by a Polish court, the Court of Justice today provided its interpretation of this provision of EU law. In particular, it clarified the scope of the notion of “detention”,which must be interpreted not as a restrictive measure, but as a measure depriving an individual of liberty. Above all, it refers to imprisonment and any comparable measure. It is the responsibility of the judicial authorities of the member state which issued the European arrest warrant to establish whether the comparable measures are equivalent to a period of deprivation of liberty.
On the basis of this interpretation, the Court concluded that the measures imposed on the Polish national by the British authorities are not, in principle, sufficiently restrictive to be deemed “detention” within the meaning of the framework decision. However, as European legislation imposes a minimum protection level of the fundamental rights of the person concerned by the European arrest warrant, the judicial authorities of the member state of issuance can choose to deduct all or part of the period for which the person was subject, in the member state of execution, to a measure other than the deprivation of liberty, such as a restriction of it, from the total sentence. (Original version in French by Jan Kordys)