Actually, it was a routine case. Five years ago, the district court requested that poses a European arrest warrant against a suspected drug dealer who had been detained by the Dutch authorities. The Pole is said to have bought 200 kilograms of hard and soft drugs in the Netherlands, in his home country. Usually, the man would have been transferred within a few months. But his case has still the judiciary. Last Friday the district court of Amsterdam decided that the man must not be extradited because Polish courts were not independent and therefore no fair trial guarantees could be. In addition, the judge turned to the European court of justice. Now to clarify, whether in Poland arrest issued commands, even from other EU States may be enforced.
Thomas Gutschker
Political correspondent for the European Union, Nato and the Benelux countries, based in Brussels.
F. A. Z.
The case is thus of fundamental importance for the cooperation of all EU States with the Polish justice. He is also a political debate. After the summer break, the EU will negotiate with States with the European Parliament and the EU Commission, a new mechanism for the enforcement of the rule of law. For the first time, it should be possible, EU funds will not restrain, if a member country has independent courts. The proponents of a sharp regulation also argue with concrete cases such as this. “We are nearing the point where the European community of law breaks,” said the EPP group MEP Daniel Caspary, the F. A. Z., He referred to the “first cases, where national courts refuse, wanted people to Poland to surrender”.
it is Not the only case
The Amsterdam case is not the only one, even if he will be addressed by the ECJ. In February, the higher regional court stopped Karlsruhe, Germany, the extradition of other Suspects to Poland, because “a high probability” that this is due to the reform of the judiciary in Poland “as, at least, is currently not allowed”. The competent Senate saw also the independence of the Polish judges and the right of every EU citizen to a fair trial in danger. He expressly referred to the dispute over the newly created disciplinary chamber of the Supreme court. The was seen not only by opposition politicians as a means of harassment of any judge. Also, the ECJ demanded the end of April, all of the disciplinary proceedings and not to open new.
The judges in Luxembourg had already opened in mid-2018, the door for the suspension of arrest warrants from Poland. At the time had them, the Irish High Court presented a case for a preliminary ruling. Also because it was a suspected drug dealer, the Irish court did not want to deliver because of the rule of law defects in Poland. The ECJ ruled that the Treaty infringement proceedings which had been initiated by the EU Commission against Warsaw, justified in itself, to a suspension of the arrest warrant law. He held such a suspension, however, possible, and developed a two-stage test procedure. First, it must be determined whether, in General, a “real risk” that the fundamental right is violated to a fair trial in a member country. The against Poland, opened the rule of law procedure in accordance with article 7 of the EU Treaty is “particularly relevant”. In the second step is to consider whether “serious and fact-confirmed reasons” for the is to affected be transferred Person to the General danger. For this purpose, the enforcement to obtain judicial authority with all the necessary information for the judicial authority that issued the warrant.
