Abstract

The case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union allows recognising that it is not possible to refuse execution of a European arrest warrant in case the fundamental rights of the requested person are violated. This view was partially overstepped in the recent ruling of the ECJ in the joint cases of Aranyosi and Căldăraru. The analysis of this judgment allows (unfortunately) to assume that the possibility of such refusal is updated only if in the EAW issuing state absolute rights have been violated. These are those from which no exemption may be granted. However, given the differences in the views of the doctrine, this ruling raises considerable interpretational difficulties. It must be proved that this decision cannot be transferred to violation of other fundamental rights of persons the EAW mechanism applies to. It also becomes problematic how to determine whether in this judgment the ECJ formulated a mechanism for deferment of the surrender of persons wanted under the EAW procedure or allowed to refuse their surrender. In particular, given the fact that the EU has not developed a mechanism that allows for discontinuing the proceedings in the EAW issuing state, and initiating proceedings in the state of its execution. Does this mean that the surrender mechanism in criminal cases developed by the European Union needs to be changed? It seems so. The issues discussed above will, therefore, become the focus of this article.