Opinion of the Advocate General — ECLI:EU:C:2016:782
Date: 2016-10-19
Language of the case: Dutch
Subject matter: Judicial cooperation in criminal matters;Police cooperation;Area of freedom, security and justice
Procedure: Preliminary reference - urgent procedure;Preliminary reference - urgent procedure - decision unnecessary
Origin: Netherlands

Summary — Judgment of the Court (Fourth Chamber), 10 November 2016 1. Police and judicial cooperation in criminal matters — Council Framework Decision 2002/584 on the European arrest warrant and the surrender procedures between Member States — Concept of ‘issuing judicial authority’ within the meaning of Article 6(1) of the Framework Decision — Police service of a Member State — Not included — Concept of ‘judicial decision’ within the meaning of Article 1(1) of the Framework Decision — European arrest warrant issued by that police service — Not included (Council Framework Decision 2002/584 as amended by Council Framework Decision 2009/299, Art. 1(1) and 6(1)) 2. Questions referred for a preliminary ruling — Interpretation — Temporal effects of judgments by way of interpretation — Retroactive effect — Limits — Consequences of the judgment — Consequences not justifying the limitation in time of the effects of the judgment (Art. 267 TFEU) 1. The term ‘judicial authority’, within the meaning of Article 6(1) of Framework Decision 2002/584 on the European arrest warrant and the surrender procedures between Member States, as amended by Framework Decision 2009/299, is an autonomous concept of EU law and that provision must be interpreted as meaning that a police service is not covered by the term ‘issuing judicial authority’, within the meaning of the same Article 6(1), meaning that the European arrest warrant issued by that police service with a view to executing a judgment imposing a custodial sentence cannot be regarded as a ‘judicial decision’, within the meaning of Article 1(1) of Framework Decision 2002/584, as amended by Framework Decision 2009/299. The principle of mutual recognition, enshrined in Article 1(2) of the Framework Decision, pursuant to which the executing judicial authority is required to execute the arrest warrant issued by the issuing judicial authority, is founded on the premiss that a judicial authority has intervened prior to the execution of the European arrest warrant, for the purposes of exercising its review. However, the issue of an arrest warrant by a non-judicial authority, such as a police service, does not provide the executing judicial authority with an assurance that the issue of that European arrest warrant has undergone such judicial approval and cannot, therefore, suffice to justify the high level of confidence between the Member States which forms the very basis of the Framework Decision. In that regard, the specific organisation of police services within the executive and the degree of autonomy they might have is irrelevant. (see points 44-45, 52, operative part) 2. See the text of the decision. (see paras 55-58)