Press Release: European arrest warrant fights cross-border crime, but EU Member States can improve how it is used, Commission report says

Europeans have the right to travel freely within the EU for work, study or holidays. But open borders should not allow criminals to evade justice simply by travelling to another Member State. The European arrest warrant – in effect since 2004 – provides an efficient tool for extraditing people suspected of an offence from one EU country to another, so that criminals have no hiding place in Europe.

While there are many successes, EU Member States can improve how the system – which is based on mutual confidence between national judicial systems – operates, the European Commission found in a report released on 11 April 2011. Member States should use the European arrest warrant with due regard to fundamental rights and the actual need for extradition in each case.