The project will provide evidence-based advice to EU institutions and Member States on procedural safeguards for persons requested in the European Arrest Warrant proceedings. FRA will collect information through a combination of desk research and interviews with lawyers, judges and prosecutors.
In 2019 FRA published the report Rights in practice: access to a lawyer in procedural and arrest warrant proceedings based on the research in 9 Member States. In the 2020 Council conclusions, FRA was invited to continue working on the procedural rights in European arrest warrant proceedings, focusing on access to a lawyer. The Council invited the FRA to consider the possibility of continuing the study, extending it to all Member States and putting a special emphasis on the experiences of lawyers acting in surrender proceedings under the European Arrest Warrant Framework Decision.
In response, FRA will carry out this project to provide research-based evidence of implementation of procedural rights of requested persons.
The research covers 19 Member States (Belgium, Croatia, Czechia, Cyprus, Germany, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden). Data will be collected by FRA experts and the Agency’s multidisciplinary research network, FRANET, by means of desk and social fieldwork research. FRA will carry out 6 to 10 interviews per country with lawyers and judicial authorities (judges and prosecutors).
