UK led rest of the EU in issuing European Arrest Warrants
BRITAIN has made more arrests under the European Arrest Warrant than any other country in the EU for the past four years, figures obtained by The Sunday Telegraph show.
The UK carried out more than eight times as many European Arrest Warrants than were executed on its behalf by EU police forces in the past decade.
Tory MPs said that the “justice deficit” meant the EU should drop demands in Brexit negotiations over a new extradition treaty for a role for the European Court of Justice (ECJ) and a UK pledge to stay in the European Convention on Human Rights.
The UK will leave the European Arrest Warrant system ( EAW) at the end of the Brexit transition period on December 31. British and EU negotiators will resume talks over a replacement in London tomorrow.
“Since the European Arrest Warrant came into force in the UK, we have surrendered over 10,000 individuals to face trial or serve sentences in EU member states,” a Home Office spokesman said. “That is why we are seeking fast-track extradition arrangements based on the EU’s existing agreement with [non-EU countries] Norway and Iceland.”
David Jones, a former minister at the Department for Exiting the European
Union, said the EU would have to “swallow its pride”. He said: “Quite clearly, the UK contribution to the EAW system is considerably more than any of the EU member states.’’
“It does highlight how important the UK is to the system of criminal law enforcement in the EU. So it is in Brussels’ interest to replicate the EAW with something that doesn’t require ECJ oversight,” the MP for Clwyd West said.
The EU’s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier said that while “we are not far from an agreement , we have some fundamental problems because in some areas we need a clear reference to the Court of Justice.” He added: “When the interpretation of the EU law is concerned, we must and we will refer to the Court of Justice.”
British negotiators are also seeking safeguards in the new treaty which are not part of the EAW agreement. These include giving judges power to refuse EU extradition requests if there had not been a decision to charge or try the suspect to prevent long periods of pretrial detention or if the UK courts think the cost of an arrest outweighs the seriousness of the offence.
Failure to agree a replacement deal by January 1 will mean the UK falls back on 1956 rules for extradition. which are far slower.
During the financial years 20092020, 16,300 people were arrested in the UK on behalf of authorities in EU countries. A total of 11,461 – 391 of them British nationals – were ultimately extradited.
Over the same period, 1,956 were arrested by EU forces carrying out UK-issued warrants. Of these, 1,674, including 728 British suspects, were surrendered to the UK.
‘It is in Brussels’ interests to replicate the EAW with something that doesn’t require ECJ oversight’