In an article this week, the Independent set out how to “make the EU work for us, not the other way round”. One example of the power the EU holds over our lives that the Indy provided was the European Arrest Warrant (EAW).
“Given the common threat of terrorism, it’s understandable that we might want a European arrest warrant for terrorism but what about the other 30 offences that are listed for which you might be uplifted overnight to another member state?”
The European Arrest Warrant - what on earth is that, I hear you ask. Andrew Symeou and his family hadn’t heard of it either until it was used to try and extradite the student to Greece for a crime he insists he did not commit - and crucially without the need for any evidence to be provided until he is actually extradited. Oh, and I forgot to mention that his friends were allegedly beaten by Greek police into making statements against him.
That was one of the reasons today that Lord Justice Laws and Mr Justice Ouseley “said the case raised issues of law of public importance and the Law Lords, the highest court in the land, should be given the opportunity to decide whether they would like to look into the matter.”
“Lord Justice Laws said the court had decided “with very considerable misgivings” that an argument had been raised over whether extradition should be halted because alleged “misconduct or bad faith” by Greek police officers had led to an abuse of process.”
I interviewed Andrew and his parents earlier in the year and will have a post tomorrow explaining the case and the consequences of the EAW in eroding age-old principles of British law.
The EAW legislation also destroys the argument that the EU doesn’t matter. In many ways, it has extraordinary powers that many European citizens are completely oblivious to.
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I’d be interested to read this.
There should be some sort of extradition mechanism between member-states - but the EAW may be deeply flawed (I don’t know enough about it).