Conor Lenihan (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)

Seanad amendment No. 27 inserts a new subsection (3) in section 70 of the Bill which relates to section 23 of the European Arrest Warrant Act 2003. Section 23 of that Act deals with requests for the surrender of a person by the issuing state to another member state. Section 26 gives effect to Article 28 of the framework decision. That article dealt with the question of a person being surrendered to a third member state.

The core position is that a person must not be surrendered to another member state without the first executing state consenting to that onward surrender. The new subsection (3) contains the presumption of compliance by the issuing member state with the terms of the framework decision, in this case, that it will respect the rules relating to onward surrender. This presumption will arise where the arrested person claims that the issuing state does not intend to respect those rules. The effect of the presumption is to ensure that the mere making of a claim will not suffice. Something more will have to be offered to support the claim. The presumption of compliance provision takes account of the mutual recognition concept that is at the heart of the European arrest warrant system. It represents an assumption we are entitled to make about our closest partners, that is, that they are acting in a bona fide manner in operating the framework decision. It also clarifies the threshold that needs to be met before further information will have to be sought from the issuing state.

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