The European Commissioner for Justice, Věra Jourová, has said this Friday that she considers the European Arrest Warrant (EAW) a "success story" for the European Union. She rejected suggestions that the Commission should pursue changes to the system.
In statements to Spanish news agency EFE, Jourová declined to comment on the decision by a Belgian court to reject Spain's extradition requests for the Catalan ministers in exile in that country and said that she is not the "arbiter of the execution of specific cases".
"That's down to the courts. I can only say that, as European legislators, we won't change anything about the rules of the European Arrest Warrant", the Czech commissioner said, "I believe that the European Arrest Warrant has been a success story for the EU".
Sobre l'ordre de detenció europea, el portaveu de justícia de la Comissió, Christian @ChristianWigand repeteix que "funciona perfectament i no tenim intenció d'introduir-hi canvis" pic.twitter.com/wWObbYYyJa
— Comissió Europea(@EUinBCN) 18 mai 2018
On the European Arrest Warrant, the Commission's justice spokesperson, Christian Wigand, repeats that it "works very well and we don't intend [to make] any changes".
On Wednesday, a Belgian judge refused the extradition of Catalan ministers Toni Comín, Meritxell Serret and Lluís Puig, sought by Spain on the charges of rebellion (Comín), disobedience (Serret and Puig) and misuse of public funds (all three) over a technical error in the filing of the European Arrest Warrant. The court argued there wasn't a matching national arrest warrant, as required.
Jourová said in December there was no need to increase the list of crimes covered by the system and, after Germany's refusal to extradite president Carles Puigdemont in April for rebellion, said she believed that they had acted "in accordance with the rules".