The European Arrest Warrant in the European Criminal Policy. It’s Implementation in the Hellenic Legal Order

The programme of measures to implement the principle of mutual recognition of criminal decisions envisaged in point 37 of the Tampere European Council Conclusions and adopted by the Council on 30 November 2000 (OJ C 12 E, 15.1.2001, p. 10), addresses the matter of mutual enforcement of arrest warrants. All or some Member States (MS) are parties to a number of conventions in the field of extradition, including the European Convention on extradition of 13 December 1957 and the European Convention on the suppression of terrorism of 27 January 1977. Also it is must be mentioned that Nordic States have extradition laws with identical wording. In addition, the following three Conventions dealing in whole or in part with extradition have been agreed upon among MS and form part of the Union acquits: the Convention of 19 June 1990 implementing the Schengen Agreement of 14 June 1985 on the gradual abolition of checks at their common borders (OJ L 239, 22.9.2000, p. 19) (regarding relations between the MS which are parties to that Convention), the Convention of 10 March 1995 on simplified extradition procedure between the M S of the European Union (OJ C 78, 30.3.1995, p. 2) and the Convention of 27 September 1996 relating to extradition between the MS of the European Union (OJ C 313, 13.10.1996, p. 12). The European arrest warrant is the first concrete measure in the field of criminal law, implementing the principle of mutual recognition which the European Council referred to as the ‘’cornerstone’’ of judicial cooperation.