Theresa May to announce EU opt-out powers decision

The United Kingdom Home Secretary (Interior Minister) announced on the 9 July 2013 that the UK will opt out of EU policing and criminal justice measures adopted before the Lisbon Treaty came into force in 2009.

Theresa May confirmed in a statement to the UK Parliament that the government would seek to rejoin only those measures which helped the UK co-operate with its European neighbours to combat cross-border crime and keep our country safe.

The UK had the right to opt out of 133 law and order measures in 2014 under the terms of the Lisbon Treaty.

The Government would exercise the UK’s ‘block opt-out’ from around 130 EU crime and policing laws but ‘opt back in’ to 35 of them, including measures such as the European Arrest Warrant (EAW), Europol and Eurojust.

On the 15 July 2013 Members of Parliament in the House of Commons backed the government proposals.

• Primary Source

ESO: Background Information: EU crime optouts 'could damage UK crime fighting' http://www.europeansources.info/record/eu-crime-optouts-could-damage-uk-crime-fighting/

ESO: Background Information: EU police and criminal justice measures: The UK's 2014 opt-out decision http://www.europeansources.info/record/eu-police-and-criminal-justice-measures-the-uks-2014-opt-out-decision/

EUObserver, 10.07.13: UK to scrap 100 EU justice laws http://euobserver.com/justice/120810

UK: Home Office, 09.07.13: Decision on EU crime and justice measures https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-to-opt-out-of-eu-crime-and-justice-measures

Open Europe: Press Release, 09.07.13: UK Government announces repatriation of EU crime and justice law – but set to keep European Arrest Warrant, Europol and Eurojust http://www.openeurope.org.uk/Article/Page/en/LIVE?id=12609&page=PressReleases

BBC News, 15.07.13: Commons backs EU justice opt-outs http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-23322841

UK: HM Government: Decision pursuant to Article 10 of Protocol 36 to The Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, July 2013 (Cm 8671) http://www.official-documents.gov.uk/document/cm86/8671/8671.pdf

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