Niculaie Aurel Bob-Dogi.
Date: 2016-06-01
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First, it should be noted that the purpose of the Framework Decision, as is apparent from Article 1(1) and (2) and recitals 5 and 7 thereof in particular, is to replace the multilateral system of extradition based on the European Convention on Extradition of 13 December 1957 with a system of surrender between judicial authorities of convicted or suspected persons for the purpose of enforcing judgments or of conducting prosecutions, the system of surrender being based on the principle of mutual recognition (judgment of 5 April 2016 in Aranyosi and Căldăraru, C‑404/15 and C‑659/15 PPU, EU:C:2016:198, paragraph 75 and the case-law cited).
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The Framework Decision thus seeks, by the establishment of a new simplified and more effective system for the surrender of persons convicted or suspected of having infringed criminal law, to facilitate and accelerate judicial cooperation with a view to contributing to the attainment of the objective set for the European Union to become an area of freedom, security and justice, founded on the high level of confidence which should exist between the Member States (judgment of 5 April 2016 in Aranyosi and Căldăraru, C‑404/15 and C‑659/15 PPU, EU:C:2016:198, paragraph 76 and the case-law cited).
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The principle of mutual recognition on which the European arrest warrant system is based is itself founded on the mutual confidence between the Member States that their national legal systems are capable of providing equivalent and effective protection of the fundamental rights recognised at EU level, particularly in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (judgment of 5 April 2016 in Aranyosi and Căldăraru, C‑404/15 and C‑659/15 PPU, EU:C:2016:198, paragraph 77 and the case-law cited).
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Lastly, it should be observed that compliance with the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union is binding, as is stated in Article 51(1) of the Charter, on the Member States and, consequently, on their courts, when they are implementing EU law, which is the case when the issuing judicial authority and the executing judicial authority are applying the provisions of national law adopted to transpose the Framework Decision (see, to that effect, judgment of 5 April 2016 in Aranyosi and Căldăraru, C‑404/15 and C‑659/15 PPU, EU:C:2016:198, paragraph 84).
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Those various aspects of a textual nature confirm that the term ‘arrest warrant’, as used in Article 8(1)(c) of the Framework Decision, refers only to the national arrest warrant, which is to be understood as the judicial decision on which the European arrest warrant is based.
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Furthermore, the interpretation of Article 8(1)(c) of the Framework Decision to the effect that the European arrest warrant must necessarily be based on a national judicial decision that is distinct from that warrant, taking the form, as the case may be, of a national arrest warrant, follows not only from the wording of that provision but also its context and the objectives pursued by the Framework Decision, which, according to the Court’s case-law, must be taken into account in interpreting that decision (see, to that effect, inter alia, judgment of 16 July 2015 in Lanigan, C‑237/15 PPU, EU:C:2015:474, paragraph 35 and the case-law cited).
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Indeed, those principles are based on the premiss that the European arrest warrant concerned has been issued in conformity with the minimum requirements necessary for it to be valid, which include the requirement laid down in Article 8(1)(c) of the Framework Decision.
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Moreover, compliance with the requirement laid down in Article 8(1)(c) of the Framework Decision is of particular importance since it means that, where the European arrest warrant has been issued with a view to the arrest and surrender by another Member State of a requested person for the purposes of conducting a criminal prosecution, that person should have already had the benefit, at the first stage of the proceedings, of procedural safeguards and fundamental rights, the protection of which it is the task of the judicial authority of the issuing Member State to ensure, in accordance with the applicable provisions of national law, for the purpose, inter alia, of adopting a national arrest warrant.
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The European arrest warrant system therefore entails, in view of the requirement laid down in Article 8(1)(c) of the Framework Decision, a dual level of protection for procedural rights and fundamental rights which must be enjoyed by the requested person, since, in addition to the judicial protection provided at the first level, at which a national judicial decision, such as a national arrest warrant, is adopted, is the protection that must be afforded at the second level, at which a European arrest warrant is issued, which may occur, depending on the circumstances, shortly after the adoption of the national judicial decision.
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That dual level of judicial protection is lacking, in principle, in a situation such as that in the main proceedings, in which a ‘simplified’ European arrest warrant procedure is applied, since, under that procedure, no decision, such as a decision to issue a national arrest warrant on which the European arrest warrant will be based, has been taken by a national judicial authority before the European arrest warrant is issued.
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In the light of all the foregoing considerations, the answer to the first question is that Article 8(1)(c) of the Framework Decision is to be interpreted as meaning that the term ‘arrest warrant’, as used in that provision, must be understood as referring to a national arrest warrant that is distinct from the European arrest warrant.
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It should be noted in that regard that, in the area governed by the Framework Decision, the principle of mutual recognition, which constitutes, as stated in particular in recital 6 of that decision, the ‘cornerstone’ of judicial cooperation in criminal matters, is given effect in Article 1(2) of the Framework Decision, pursuant to which Member States are in principle obliged to give effect to a European arrest warrant (judgment in Aranyosi and Căldăraru, C‑404/15 and C‑659/15 PPU, EU:C:2016:198, paragraph 79).
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It follows that the executing judicial authority may refuse to execute such a warrant only in the cases, exhaustively listed, of obligatory non-execution laid down in Article 3 of the Framework Decision, or of optional non-execution, laid down in Article 4 and 4a of the Framework Decision. Moreover, the execution of the European arrest warrant may be made subject only to one of the conditions exhaustively laid down in Article 5 of that Framework Decision (judgment in Aranyosi and Căldăraru, C‑404/15 and C‑659/15 PPU, EU:C:2016:198, paragraph 80).
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However, as the Advocate General also observed at point 107 of his Opinion, while those provisions of the Framework Decision leave no discretion as to the grounds for non-execution other than set out in those provisions, the fact nevertheless remains that those provisions are based on the premiss that the European arrest warrant concerned will satisfy the requirements as to the lawfulness of that warrant laid down in Article 8(1) of the Framework Decision.
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Given that Article 8(1)(c) of the Framework Decision lays down a requirement as to lawfulness which must be observed if the European arrest warrant is to be valid, failure to comply with that requirement must, in principle, result in the executing judicial authority refusing to give effect to that warrant.