Limits of the Assessing, Prior to the Execution of a European Arrest Warrant, of the Conditions of Detention in the Issuing Member State

Abstract

By its Aranyosi and Căldăraru judgment of April 2016, the Court of Justice ruled that the execution of a European arrest warrant must be deferred if there is a real risk of inhuman or degrading treatment because of the conditions of detention of the person concerned in the Member State where the warrant was issued. The Court also pointed out that if the existence of that risk cannot be discounted within a reasonable period, the authority responsible for the execution of the warrant must decide whether the surrender procedure should be brought to an end.
In July 2018, the Court pronounced its ruling in the Generalstaatsanwaltschaft case, by which it marked limits for the executing judicial authorities as to the assessing, prior to the execution of a European arrest warrant, of conditions of detention in the issuing Member State.
First, the Court emphasised that the executing judicial authority must, in principle, accept an assurance given by the issuing judicial authority, by which this latter guarantees that the fundamental rights of the person in respect of whom the arrest warrant has been issued will not be impaired in the course of his detention in the Member State of the issuing authority.
Second, the Court did not uphold the arguments presented by the referring German court, according to which, as the person concerned may possibly be held at a later stage in prisons other than those for which the executing authority has ascertained that the conditions of detention are satisfactory, this authority should be required, prior to executing the arrest warrant, to assess the conditions of detention in all the prisons of the issuing Member State which can at least theoretically come into question for the detention of the person in question.
Third, the Court drew the referring court’s attention to the circumstance that an executing judicial authority which considers it necessary to request that the issuing judicial authority provide it, by filling a detailed questionnaire, with supplementary
information on the conditions of detention must ensure that its questions do not, because of their number, scope and content, result in the operation of the European arrest warrant being brought to a standstill.