The Council of Justice and Home Affairs Ministers today reached agreement on the general approach of a Framework Decision which will enhance the mutual recognition and enforcement among Member States of judgments in criminal matters imposing custodial sentences or other measures involving deprivation of liberty.
Under the Framework Decision, it will in future be possible for sentenced persons to be transferred to serve their sentence in their EU country of nationality without having to give their consent, provided that they are habitually resident in that country and have family, social or other ties there. This is a particularly important factor in facilitating the offender's social rehabilitation. If the offender is already in his home country, the foreign judgment is sent to that country for the purpose of enforcement. The consent of the home country to transfer of the offender or transmission of the judgment for the purpose of enforcement is not required.
"In future, it will be even more straightforward for an EU citizen who has been given a custodial sentence in another EU member state to be transferred to his home country to serve that sentence. The Framework Decision extends the possibilities that currently exist under the Council of Europe Convention on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons and thus enhances the potential for the offender's social rehabilitation," said the German Federal Minister of Justice, Brigitte Zypries.
The substantive objectives of the Framework Decision in detail are as follows:
The existing Council of Europe Convention on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons already provides for the possibility of transfer of sentenced persons to serve their sentence in their home country. However, under that Convention, the requirement exists that the sentenced person must consent to the transfer and that the two countries concerned must come to an agreement in each individual case. The Additional Protocol to the Convention establishes that the consent of the sentenced person is not required in those cases where an expulsion or deportation order exists against them as a result of the offence for which they have been sentenced, or where the person has fled to his or her home country to avoid execution of the sentence.
The principal new element contained in the Framework Decision vis-à-vis the Convention and its Additional Protocol is the fact that the requirement for the consent of the sentenced person and the consent of the home country to enforcement of the judgment in that country has been dispensed with. However, it is a requirement that the sentenced person is a national of the executing state and is actually resident there. The two requirements for consent are dispensed with in these cases regardless of whether the person is in the sentencing or the executing state (i.e. cases of transfer of a sentenced person and cases of taking over enforcement of sentence).
