JUDGMENT OF 25. 7. 2018 –– CASE C-220/18 PPU
GENERALSTAATSANWALTSCHAFT (CONDITIONS OF DETENTION IN HUNGARY)
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Articles 3, 4 and 4a of the Framework Decision set out the grounds for mandatory and optional
non-execution of the European arrest warrant. In particular, under point 6 of Article 4 of the
Framework Decision, the executing judicial authority may refuse to execute the European arrest
warrant ‘if the European arrest warrant has been issued for the purposes of execution of a custodial
sentence or detention order, where the requested person is staying in, or is a national or a resident of
the executing Member State and that State undertakes to execute the sentence or detention order in
accordance with its domestic law’.
Under Article 5 of the Framework Decision, entitled ‘Guarantees to be given by the issuing Member
State in particular cases’:
‘The execution of the European arrest warrant by the executing judicial authority may, by the law of
the executing Member State, be subject to the following conditions:
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(2) if the offence on the basis of which the European arrest warrant has been issued is punishable by
custodial life sentence or life-time detention order, the execution of the said arrest warrant may be
subject to the condition that the issuing Member State has provisions in its legal system for a
review of the penalty or measure imposed, on request or at the latest after 20 years, or for the
application of measures of clemency to which the person is entitled to apply for under the law or
practice of the issuing Member State, aiming at a non-execution of such penalty or measure;
(3) where a person who is the subject of a European arrest warrant for the purposes of prosecution is
a national or resident of the executing Member State, surrender may be subject to the condition
that the person, after being heard, is returned to the executing Member State in order to serve
there the custodial sentence or detention order passed against him in the issuing Member State.’
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Article 6 of the Framework Decision, entitled ‘Determination of the competent judicial authorities’,
provides in paragraph 1:
‘The issuing judicial authority shall be the judicial authority of the issuing Member State which is
competent to issue a European arrest warrant by virtue of the law of that State.’
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Article 7 of the Framework Decision, entitled ‘Recourse to the central authority’, provides in
paragraph 1:
‘Each Member State may designate a central authority or, when its legal system so provides, more than
one central authority to assist the competent judicial authorities.’
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Article 15 of the Framework Decision, ‘Surrender decision’, reads as follows:
‘1. The executing judicial authority shall decide, within the time limits and under the conditions
defined in this Framework Decision, whether the person is to be surrendered.
2. If the executing judicial authority finds the information communicated by the issuing Member State
to be insufficient to allow it to decide on surrender, it shall request that the necessary supplementary
information, in particular with respect to Articles 3 to 5 and Article 8, be furnished as a matter of
urgency and may fix a time limit for the receipt thereof, taking into account the need to observe the
time limits set in Article 17.
3. The issuing judicial authority may at any time forward any additional useful information to the
executing judicial authority.’
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ECLI:EU:C:2018:589