The European Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties (LIBE) also has a say on the European Arrest Warrant (EAW) and adopted a report on Tuesday 1 December on the implementation of this tool created in 2002 by a EU Council framework decision.
At the same time, the EU Council also adopted its conclusions on the European Arrest Warrant, ahead of the videoconference of EU Justice Ministers on 2 December.
The report by Spanish MEP Javier Zarzalejos (EPP), adopted by 45 votes to 14 with 9 abstentions, seeks to highlight the problems encountered by Member States in implementing EAWs and suggests some ways to improve it. The subject is political, the EAW having been at the heart of the turmoil linked to the referendum on the independence of Catalonia in 2017.
The resolution stresses that “the European arrest warrant should be limited to serious offences and used when other less intrusive legal instruments, such as the European Investigation Order, have been exhausted”, a statement says.
Furthermore, Member States could only refuse to execute a European arrest warrant on limited specific grounds. MEPs stress, in this respect, that a refusal due to a violation of fundamental rights must be based on “factual and objective elements”.
Mutual recognition requires mutual trust and this can only be achieved “if respect for the fundamental and procedural rights of suspects and accused persons is guaranteed throughout the Union”.
Parliament is also of the opinion that double criminality control - the process of checking whether the act is a criminal offence in both countries - limits mutual recognition.
The Commission was therefore invited to evaluate the list of 32 categories that did not require such monitoring, and elected representatives suggested adding environmental crimes, certain forms of tax evasion, hate crimes, gender-based violence, and crimes against constitutional integrity committed through the use of violence.
Link to the report: https://bit.ly/2VrGf7u (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)