| Author (Person) | Wintour, Patrick |
|---|---|
| Series Title | The Guardian |
| Series Details | 29.10.14 |
| Publication Date | 29/10/2014 |
| Content Type | News |
|
The Guardian, and other news sources, reported that United Kingdom Prime Minister David Cameron announced on the 29 October 2014 that he would stage a House of Commons vote imminently over opting back into the EU's European Arrest Warrant and over thirty other EU justice matters. The vote would risk a backbench rebellion from many MPs in Mr Cameron's Conservative Party who opposed the move, while the vote would also take place before a vital Rochester and Strood byelection, at which UKIP threatened to win a second seat in the UK Parliament. The BBC reported on the 4 November 2014 that the House of Common's European Scrutiny Committee had insisted in a report issued on that day that MPs should be able to vote individually on each measure, and not in a single global vote as the government was proposing. In a letter published in the Daily Telegraph on the 6 November forty senior UK judges said voting for the EAW 'was a vote for security' and 'effective criminal justice'. The votes on the issue were due to take place in the House of Commons on the 10 November 2014. However, in a late disclosure (see reports below from The Guardian and Open Europe on the 10.11.14), it became clear that MPs would be allowed to vote on only 11 relatively minor EU justice and home affairs measures, not the whole package of 35 that included the European arrest warrant. Theresa May, Home Secretary, said she would treat the vote on the 11 measures as being a vote on all 35, including the European arrest warrant. She said they were not all mentioned in the motion because there was no need for them all to be transposed into UK law. On the same day of the vote the House of Lords Committee on Extradition Law published a short report on the European Arrest Warrant. It concluded that the UK must have effective extradition arrangements with the EU, which the EAW currently provided. Although alternative arrangements had been proposed, they each raised substantial political and legal questions that would need to be answered. If the UK were to allow its opt-out to come into effect in early December 2014 these questions would become acute and would require urgent answers. |
|
| Source Link | http://www.theguardian.com/law/2014/oct/29/cameron-commons-vote-european-arrest-warrant |
| Related Links |
|
| Subject Categories | Justice and Home Affairs |
| Countries / Regions | United Kingdom |
