Brussels, 18/09/2001 (Agence Europe) - Acting in response to the attacks on the United States, the European Commission has brought forward by one week the adoption of its two proposals for a framework decision on the fight against terrorism and for replacing extradition procedure by a European arrest warrant. The Commission will therefore adopt these proposals on Wednesday. Commissioner Antonio Vitorino will present the proposals that afternoon to the European Parliament. They will then be the subject of a first reading at the special Justice and Home Affairs Council on Thursday. It is expected they will be adopted very swiftly after a detailed examination of the texts, which cover sensitive issues.
"The proposals have been in preparation for some time and are not directly linked to the events in the United States but they do concern issues that are raised by these events", said the Commissioner's spokesman. The aim of the proposals is to "prevent terrorists from being able to take advantage of the differences between national legislation, and to give the Fifteen a tool for accelerating extradition procedures", he added. During its plenary session early September, the European Parliament had encouraged the Commission to make these two proposals (see EUROPE of 1 September, p.8).
Harmonising the fight against terrorism
The Commission proposes that the Fifteen adopt a common and comprehensive definition of terrorism, and a common and graduated scale of sanctions, with prison sentences ranging between 2 and 20 years. The draft framework-decision comprises a list of terrorist infringements (murder, kidnapping, injury, extortion of funds, cyber-terrorism), defined as being infringements committed intentionally by individuals or groups against one or several countries, their institutions or their population, in view of threatening and seriously injuring their political, economic, environmental or social structures, or destroying them. The text concerns terrorism committed by groups as well as individually, and concerns both persons belonging to a terrorist group and those supporting it, heading it, being accomplice to it or trying to commit other terrorist acts.
The text proposes a scale of sanctions: a maximum of 2 to 20 years in prison according to the offence, as well as the stripping of civil and political rights, and fines. It urges Member States to take account of aggravating circumstances (attack against the political or legal authority, particular serious nature of an act) and attenuating circumstances (cooperation of a person having "repented"). The Commission also suggests that each Member State select a point of contact for information exchange.
Presently, the situation differs greatly from one Member State to the next. Only France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom have specific legislation on terrorism. In other countries, these actions are judged as crimes under common law.
Replacing extradition with a simpler procedure
Through its Framework Decision, the Commission is calling on Member States to replace the extradition procedure, which can be complicated and often has uncertain results, by a European arrest warrant that should be quicker and simpler since the political and administrative parts of the procedure are replaced by a judicial procedure. Basically, any person condemned to at least four months in prison in a Member State, or who have been arrested for any crime warranting at least a year's imprisonment, can be arrested in another Member State and transferred to the initial country simply upon request from the relevant judicial authority to another judicial authority. This request would be the "European arrest warrant". If the person in question refused to be transferred to another Member State, they would be brought before a judge. The entire procedure must take no longer than 90 days. The Commission is proposing that a limited number of cases should be allowed where a Member State can refuse to comply with the request. A country may not refuse request on the grounds that the crime is not a crime under its own penal system, except in specific cases to be listed by each Member State. The Commission also suggests scrapping the possibility of refusing to hand over its own nationals. A state may, however, request that nationals handed over in this way be returned to their country of origin once judgement has been passed so that they spend the rest of their prison sentence in the home country. The Commission is proposing to strengthen defence rights (right to access a lawyer and an interpreter on arrest, use of videoconferencing where possible, etc).
The December 1999 Tampere European Summit asked the Commission to prepare a proposal to replace extradition with a simpler procedure. A European Extradition Convention exists, but few states have ratified it. A bilateral agreement simplifying extradition procedures was recently signed by Spain and Italy and Spain and the United Kingdom are in the process of negotiating a similar agreement.