EU: EU-US extradition deal off
01 January 1997
Discussions in the EU-US Senior Officials Group has concluded that the new Extradition Convention, agreed by the Council of Justice and Home Affairs Ministers in September 1996, cannot be extended to the United States. The Convention still has to be ratified by the 15 EU national parliaments.
American officials raised the idea after the Convention had been agreed that the US could sign up too thus replacing the 15 individual bilateral deals already in place. At present the EU cannot constitutionally make a deal because it has no collective "legal personality" (though it is on the agenda of the IGC) but it would have been possible for all member states to sign identical bilateral treaties creating a de facto common EU position.
However, a number of member states were reluctant to put the legitimacy of the new Extradition Convention at risk before it is ratified and in view of the death penalty being available in some American states.
European Voice, 13.2.97.