European Union law precludes national legislation that excludes, absolutely and automatically, any third-country national from the possibility of the non-execution of a European arrest warrant issued against him or her, ruled the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) in a judgment delivered on Tuesday 6 June (case C-700/21).
In Italy, the Constitutional Court was asked to examine whether the national legislation complies with the framework decision (2002/584/JHA) establishing the European arrest warrant (EAW). Italian regulations limit the possibility of the refusal to execute an EAW in order to serve in Italy a sentence imposed by the courts of another EU country to Italians and nationals of other EU Member States if the person has long-standing ties with Italy.
Referred to the CJEU for a preliminary ruling, the Court took the view that the legislation was incompatible with EU law, as it was contrary to the principle of equal treatment enshrined in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.
The European Court recalls that refusal to execute a European arrest warrant is possible if the following two conditions are met: - the requested person lives in the Member State of execution of the EAW as a national or resident; - that State undertakes to execute, in accordance with its domestic law, the sentence for which the warrant was issued.
With regard to the first condition, it adds, a Member State may, in the case of third-country nationals, make the ground of non-execution of a warrant subject to the requirement that the third-country national has stayed or resided there continuously for a minimum period of time.
When both conditions are met, the executing judicial authority must still ascertain whether there is a legitimate interest justifying the sentence imposed in the country issuing the EAW being executed in the executing country. This assessment allows the objective of the framework decision to be taken into account, which is to increase the chances of social reintegration of the requested person once he or she has served his or her sentence.
The Italian judicial authority is therefore invited to make an overall assessment of all the specific elements likely to demonstrate the existence of connections between the requested person and Italy, such as family, linguistic, cultural, social or economic links, as well as the nature, duration and conditions of his or her stay in that Member State.
See the Court’s judgment: https://aeur.eu/f/79h (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)