Proposal for a Council Decision on the conclusion of the Agreement in form of an Exchange of Letters between the European Community and Barbados, Belize, the Republic of Congo, Fiji, the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire, Jamaica, the Republic of Kenya, the Republic of Madagascar, the Republic of Malawi, the Republic of Mauritius, the Republic of Suriname, Saint Christopher and Nevis, the Kingdom of Swaziland, the United Republic of Tanzania, the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago,

The Commission is submitting this report evaluating the application of the Council Framework Decision of 13 June 2002 on the European arrest warrant and the surrender procedures between Member States[1] ("the Framework Decision") pursuant to Article 34 of the Decision. The evaluation is important since the arrest warrant is the first and most symbolic measure applying the principle of mutual recognition.

The evaluation criteria adopted by the Commission for this report are, firstly, the general criteria normally used nowadays to evaluate the implementation of framework decisions (practical effectiveness, clarity and legal certainty, full application and compliance with the time limit for transposal)[2], and, secondly, criteria specific to the arrest warrant, principally the fact that it is a judicial instrument, its effectiveness and its rapidity.

The Commission has based the report, primarily, on national provisions giving effect to the arrest warrant, as communicated to it by the Member States (Article 34(2)), and the supplementary information supplied by the Council (Article 34(3)), in particular the available replies provided to the questionnaires addressed to the Member States by the Council presidency[3].

The Commission has also tried to supplement its information, both by using the replies given to the European Judicial Network's questionnaire, which concerned the practical aspects of the arrest warrant prior to 1 September 2004, and by maintaining a bilateral dialogue with the designated national contact points. The contents of this report and its annex[4] have nevertheless been affected by the many delays and shortcomings in transmission, the uneven quality of the information obtained and the brevity of the period examined.

EUR-Lex: COM(2004)51: Follow the progress of this document through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2004:51:FIN

European Commission: DG Trade: Policy: Countries and regions: Caribbean http://ec.europa.eu/trade/policy/countries-and-regions/regions/caribbean/

EU: EEAS: Latin America and the Carribean https://eeas.europa.eu/diplomatic-network/latin-america-and-caribbean_en

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