Criminal procedures - EU to work on rights to translation and interpretation
Publication date: 02 July 2009
Criminal procedures - EU to work on rights to translation and interpretation
A suspect caught up in a criminal procedure in another EU member state than his or her own should at least have access to translation and interpretation: that is what the Union’s Swedish Presidency, which has just started its six-month term, would like to ensure. And that is what the European Commission could propose, on 8 July.
The subject made waves two years ago under the German EU Presidency. Berlin exhausted its options for finding a compromise on the Commission’s proposal. All in vain. Several countries, including the United Kingdom and Ireland, argued that there was a lack of legal basis. They even tried to replace the draft framework decision with a resolution – with no real legal value. Anxious to put citizens’ rights at the heart of its Presidency, Sweden will put the possibility of reaching an agreement on the new proposal very high up on its agenda. As a reminder, the Presidency will also have to find an agreement on the EU’s justice and home affairs - so-called Stockholm - programme for 2010-2014.
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Background
The proposal for a framework decision on procedural rights dates back to 2004. It put minimum guarantees for suspects on the table: access to the help of a lawyer, as soon as possible, throughout criminal proceedings; free access to the services of an interpreter and a translator; procedural guarantees for people unable to understand or follow proceedings; and informing the suspects of their rights before their first questioning. During the consultation, London had already said: “All member states are signatories of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). According to the subsidiarity principle, they must determine how they will fulfil their obligations to guarantee the right [to a fair trial].” To this observation, the Commission replied that the ECHR does not always allow effective protection. The proof: the multiple appeals before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.
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Stockholm should therefore try and gain unanimity from the EU justice ministers on translation and interpretation. But this will be a “first step”. Next, the Swedes would like to get Council to adopt the conclusions on the follow-up of guarantees for suspects. More generally, the EU should gain ground in the fight against crime at a European level. Not only to guarantee the “mutual recognition” of a member state’s judicial decisions by its partners, but also to ensure “mutual confidence” during the criminal investigation (DNA tests brought from analysis laboratories should, for example, be valid from one country to the next). Again, the Swedish ambition is to ensure that an effective fight against crime is “balanced by measures aimed at safeguarding individuals’ rights”.
Source: Europolitics
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