PARTICIPATION IN THE WEBINAR ‘EUROPEAN JUDICIAL COOPERATION’ (13.10.21)

MEP Javier Zarzalejos has participated in a webinar organized by New Generations of the Popular Party where he spoke about European judicial cooperation and the case of the EAW.

Zarzalejos assured that “the EAW responds to the logic of the European Union, where everything circulates without problem and therefore the logic is that judicial decisions also circulate. It would not make much sense for the European Union to have no borders for criminals and it had borders for judicial decisions ”.

In his opinion, “the EAW has changed the paradigm of the extradition procedure, turning it into a surrender procedure.

The MEP explained the peculiarities of the Puigdemont case to the participants, since it is a “difficult and complicated case, it is an exception”. “Fortunately in Europe we do not have seditious every day,” said Zarzalejos.

“In the case of Puigdemont we are talking about a judicial surrender procedure. There is no political decision. The handover is agreed between courts and it is a procedure based on trust and double criminality with a judicial decision, ”stressed Zarzalejos.

Likewise, he wanted to emphasize that “there have been a series of States that have dedicated themselves to making a creative transposition of the EAW, causing problems in its concrete application and on which the commission has opened an infringement file.” “This does not mean that the EAW does not work, it works quite well and is a crucial instrument of judicial cooperation“, he explained.

“The truth is that sometimes we get angry with the Belgians or with Schleswig-Holstein, but we have the problem at home. There is much greater risk that Puigdemont’s impunity comes from a political decision of the Government than that impunity comes from the Belgian courts,” warned Zarzalejos.

For the MEP, “we are facing a legal problem, well oriented despite the pro-independence propaganda. The underlying issue is well on track and we have a political problem where really at this point any forecast is more than problematic and where I think the real risk of impunity lies for Puigdemont”.