The European Arrest Warrant (EAW) is the seminal instrument in the field of EU judicial cooperation in criminal matters. It is widely used and has proved to be an efficient tool in accelerating the execution of warrants and surrender procedures in cross-border criminal cases within the EU. At the same time, the EAW still poses a number of issues – mostly related to fundamental rights protection – that Member States find difficult to accommodate in their respective legal systems and especially towards their obligation to respect fundamental rights. It is in this context that the course will map out the operational success of the EAW and discuss the fundamental rights concerns, in particular regarding detention conditions and fair trials rights, pertinent to the application of the EAW.
The objective of the course is to make legal practitioners aware of the current challenges that not only affect the daily administration of surrender procedures, but erode the basic premise of cooperation based on mutual trust and mutual recognition. Participants will understand:
- what steps to take if concerns over detention conditions arise in the course of administering an EAW;
- how to deal with an issuing authority if its judicial nature is in doubt or its independence is questionable;
- how to accommodate EAWs with a view to requests from third countries, parallel and previous procedures.