28 March 2012
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Irish government
not consulted on European arrest warrant proposal
The Irish Attorney General, Mr Michael McDowell, has said that the Irish government was not consulted prior to the Commission adopting the proposed Framework Decision - which formed the basic text considered by the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union (the 15 EU governments). Despite this lack of consultation Ireland will have to transform the proposal into its national law by the end of 2003.
The comment by Mr McDowell was made at a conference in Trier last December but was only publicly revealed at a conference organised by the Irish Centre for European Law at a conference in Dublin on 13 April.
The proposal, which was rushed through the European Parliament and the Justice and Home Affairs Council, is highly controversial as it replaces existing extradition laws (which contain important rights for suspects before their removal), gets rid of the need for "dual criminality" (whereby the offence of which a person is accused is a crime in both states) and allows the extradition of nationals without the right to a proper right of appeal to a court in their own country to decide it the grounds for extradition are sufficient.
The Framework Decision on the European arrest warrant has been "politically agreed" by the Council of the European Union but was not formally adopted because of parliamentary scrutiny reservations in the UK, Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden - the UK and Danish reserves have now been withdrawn. The measure cannot be formally adopted until all the reserves are withdrawn and there is strong opposition to the Framework Decision in the Swedish parliament, see: Sweden and Statewatch's critique of the proposal: Analysis
Source: Irish
Times
Story
filed 15.4.02
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