Agreement on the European arrest warrant” “

In the course of the meeting of the Justice and Internal Affairs Committee last week, the Fifteen reached a political agreement on the definition of terrorism and on the harmonization of the sanctions to which those guilty of terrorist acts are subject. The framework agreement spells out a list of nine crimes that can be qualified as terrorism, and specifies the minimum penalties that can be inflicted on each. The member States will have to bring their national legislations into line with the EU provision by 31 December 2002. At the same time, the Ministers of Justice approved the setting up of the network of judicial cooperation known as “Eurojust”. Composed of a magistrate with investigative powers for each member State, the Eurojust unit will have the task of facilitating contacts and collaboration between the European judicial authorities for an almost unlimited number of “grave” crimes. The decision on the adoption of the European arrest warrant, on the other hand, was deferred. The negotiation had become deadlocked due to Italy’s refusal to accept the global compromise proposed by the Belgian Presidency. The central problem was twofold: first, the list of 32 crimes that are supposed to be covered by the European arrest warrant, a list that Italy would like to be reduced in the first instance to six (terrorism, organized crime, trade in human beings, sexual exploitation of children and child pornography, drug trafficking, trafficking in arms and explosives); and second, the fact that Italy asked for a further opt-out with a view to modifying its own legislation prior to the entry into force of the provision. Eventually, however, the Italian government reached a compromise, worked out in concertation with the Belgian Presidency, according to which Italy has pledged to vote in favour of the framework decision. The Laeken Summit, which will be asked to give its final approval to the European arrest warrant, will add a specific protocol to the decision which will permit both the entry into force of the decision at the European level and the option for Italy to implement it subject to due constitutional and legislative amendment.