The EJN and Eurojust publish a joint report on the practical application of the “Petruhhin” judgment of the Court of Justice of the EU across the EU. The report addresses the challenges that the judicial authorities are facing in cases of extradition of EU citizens to non-EU countries and the actual application of the “consultation procedure” introduced by the CJEU jurisprudence. The joint report is based on the practical experience of Eurojust and the EJN Contact Points in extradition cases, addressing the different steps of the extradition proceedings. The full report could be consulted here and the overview of the main findings could be consulted here.
The Joint report and the analysis of how cases of requests for the extradition of Union citizens by third states are handled in practice was entrusted to the EJN and Eurojust by the Council of the EU, aiming to collect information on the practices in the EU in the extradition of EU citizens. The analysis is based on EJN experience collected from EJN Contact Points from 15 Member States and 4 non-EU countries and 72 Eurojust cases involving extradition requests of 10 EU Member States.
The main issues identified in the report are as follows:
-uncertainty about the authority to approach in the Member State of nationality and/or which judicial cooperation instrument is best applied to ensure prosecution in the Member State of nationality;
-different practices related to the extent of information provided, deadlines given for replies and decisions, and types of assessments carried out;
-conflicts between obligations under EU law on the one hand, and bilateral and multilateral extradition treaties on the other; and
-the existence of several parallel channels used to inform and transmit information, often leading to duplication of effort, uncertainty and confusion.