Judicial cooperation: transfer of proceedings in criminal matters

Ministers reviewed the progress made on a draft framework decision on transfer of proceedings in criminal matters.

It is recalled that by letters received by the General Secretariat in June and July 2009, Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Greece, Spain, France, Lithuania, Latvia, Hungary, the Netherlands, Romania, Slovenia, the Slovak Republic and Sweden presented an Initiative for a Council Framework Decision on transfer of proceedings in criminal matters.

By the letter of 28 July 2009, Coreper invited the European Parliament to deliver its opinion on the proposal by 17 December 2009.

Denmark, Ireland, France, Malta, Poland, Sweden and the United Kingdom entered parliamentary scrutiny reservations on the proposal and the United Kingdom has a general scrutiny reservation on the text.

Some of the issues tabled for discussion by ministers were as follows:

• the procedure for requesting transfer of proceedings;
• the decision of the receiving authority;
• consultations between the requesting and receiving authorities, and
• cooperation with Eurojust and the European Judicial Network.