February 2013 – Court of Justice of the European Union
In this judgment, the Court found that Spain could not make extradition of Mr Melloni conditional on his conviction being open to review because this would compromise the primacy and effectiveness of the EU law, as the facts of the case did not fall within the specific amendments to the EAW Framework Decision in relation to in absentia convictions agreed by Member States in 2009. We are concerned that this decision, if read expansively, may mean that other domestic laws providing extra safeguards for human rights beyond those set out in EU legislation would not be upheld. This could, for example, affect Germany which applies a proportionality test to prevent extradition for minor crimes.
