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Laeken European Council

Brussels,14-15 december 2001

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Agreement on a European arrest warrant

Extradition will no longer be necessary between EU member states

European Union (EU) member states' judiciary will no longer have to go through the formal extradition procedure in order to forcibly transfer a person from one member state to another for conducting a criminal prosecution or executing a custodial sentence or detention order. On 11 December 2001, the EU reached a political agreement on the European arrest warrant. Its purpose is to facilitate law enforcement right across the EU.

On 6 and 7 December 2001, the ministers responsible for justice and home affairs in the member states of the European Union (EU) studied a draft EU decision based on a European Commission proposal, at the initiative of Commissioner Antonio Vitorino (document reference COM(2001)522 final/2).

A political agreement was reached on 11 December 2001 at EU level on a European arrest warrant valid for the entire territory of the European Union, and on the surrender procedures between the member states. The European arrest warrant will come into force on 1 January 2004.

The agreement carries through the European Council conclusions of October 1999, in Tampere, which state that “the formal extradition procedure should be abolished among the Member States as far as persons are concerned who are fleeing from justice after having been finally sentenced”.

Criminals like anybody else can take advantage of the free movement of persons. Up till now, extradition was the only instrument available to the judiciary of a member state to catch criminals beyond its national borders. This entailed a cumbersome and complex process.

A high level of mutual trust and cooperation between the member states who share the same highly demanding conception of the rule of law, has made it possible to simplify and improve the surrendering procedure. In doing so, they are developing the European Union into a single European judicial area.

The main components of the decision.

The Framework Decision respects the fundamental rights, in particular those mentioned in the Chapter VI of the Charter of fundamental rights of the European Union which relates to justice.
The European arrest warrant applies to all offences. In practice, the judiciary of each member state will be able to issue a European arrest warrant when a person is being prosecuted for an offence punishable by a custodial sentence of over a year or when the person has been sentenced to custodial or detention order exceeding four months. When an arrest is carried out on the basis of a European arrest warrant in a member state, the person will be handed over by the judiciary of the state where the arrest has taken place pending minimal control over a maximum period of three months
For a list of 32 serious offences – punishable by deprivation of liberty of at least 3 years- the surrender of the person does not require the verification of the double criminality of the act. Dual discrimination requires that the facts which motivated issuing an arrest warrant are also incriminated in the member state where the surrender is to be carried out.
Examples of serious offences subject to European arrest warrant: participation in a criminal organisation, terrorism, trafficking in human beings, sexual exploitation of children and child pornography, illicit trafficking in arms, ammunition and explosives, corruption, fraud including fraud pertaining to the financial interest of the European Union, recycling the benefits of crime, counterfeiting of money including the Euro….