JUDGMENT OF 25. 7. 2018 –– CASE C-220/18 PPU
GENERALSTAATSANWALTSCHAFT (CONDITIONS OF DETENTION IN HUNGARY)
systemic or generalised, or which may affect certain groups of people or certain places of detention,
with respect to detention conditions in the issuing Member State does not necessarily imply that, in a
specific case, the individual concerned will be subjected to inhuman or degrading treatment in the
event that he is surrendered to the authorities of that Member State (judgment of 5 April 2016,
Aranyosi and Căldăraru, C-404/15 and C-659/15 PPU, EU:C:2016:198, paragraphs 91 and 93).
62
Thus, in order to ensure observance of Article 4 of the Charter in the particular circumstances of a
person who is the subject of a European arrest warrant, the executing judicial authority, when faced
with evidence of the existence of such deficiencies that is objective, reliable, specific and properly
updated, is then bound to determine, specifically and precisely, whether, in the particular
circumstances of the case, there are substantial grounds for believing that, following the surrender of
that person to the issuing Member State, he will run a real risk of being subject in that Member State
to inhuman or degrading treatment, within the meaning of Article 4, because of the conditions for his
detention envisaged in the issuing Member State (judgment of 5 April 2016, Aranyosi and Căldăraru,
C-404/15 and C-659/15 PPU, EU:C:2016:198, paragraphs 92 and 94).
63
To that end, that authority must, pursuant to Article 15(2) of the Framework Decision, request of the
judicial authority of the issuing Member State that there be provided as a matter of urgency all
necessary supplementary information on the conditions in which it is envisaged that the individual
concerned will be detained in that Member State. That request may also relate to the existence, in the
issuing Member State, of any national or international procedures and mechanisms for monitoring
detention conditions, linked, for example, to visits to prisons, which make it possible to assess the
current state of detention conditions in those prisons (judgment of 5 April 2016, Aranyosi and
Căldăraru, C-404/15 and C-659/15 PPU, EU:C:2016:198, paragraphs 95 and 96).
64
The issuing judicial authority is obliged to provide that information to the executing judicial authority
(judgment of 5 April 2016, Aranyosi and Căldăraru, C-404/15 and C-659/15 PPU, EU:C:2016:198,
paragraph 97).
65
If, in the light of the information provided pursuant to Article 15(2) of the Framework Decision, and of
any other information that may be available to the executing judicial authority, that authority finds that
there exists, for the individual in respect of whom the European arrest warrant has been issued, a real
risk of inhuman or degrading treatment, within the meaning of Article 4 of the Charter, the execution
of that warrant must be postponed but it cannot be abandoned (judgment of 5 April 2016, Aranyosi
and Căldăraru, C-404/15 and C-659/15 PPU, EU:C:2016:198, paragraph 98).
66
By contrast, in the event that the information received by the executing judicial authority from the
issuing judicial authority leads it to rule out the existence of a real risk that the individual concerned
will be subject to inhuman and degrading treatment in the issuing Member State, the executing
judicial authority must adopt, within the time limits prescribed by the Framework Decision, its
decision on the execution of the European arrest warrant, without prejudice to the opportunity of the
individual concerned, after surrender, to have recourse, within the legal system of the issuing Member
State, to legal remedies that may enable him to challenge, if need be, the lawfulness of the conditions
of his detention in a prison of that Member State (judgment of 5 April 2016, Aranyosi and
Căldăraru, C-404/15 and C-659/15 PPU, EU:C:2016:198, paragraph 103).
67
In the present case, the referring court considers that it is in possession of information which shows
that there are systemic or generalised deficiencies in detention conditions in Hungary. According to
that court, it follows from the judgment of the ECtHR of 10 March 2015, Varga and Others v. Hungary
(CE:ECHR:2015:0310JUD001409712, §§ 79 to 92), that, as Hungary is experiencing prison
overcrowding, there is a risk that the persons who are held there will be subjected to inhuman or
degrading treatment. That court considers that, at the date on which the order for reference was
made, there continued to be such overcrowding, since, according to the Hungarian authorities, 1 000
prison places had been created, whilst 5 500 extra places were needed. The referring court also states
ECLI:EU:C:2018:589
13
Select target paragraph3
Connect to a paragraph
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Add to table of contents