EU: EU justice ministers have reached a politically important agreement on collecting and transferring evidence for criminal cases among different member states.
The deal comes after three years of difficult negotiations during which the European Commission accused member states of not having the political will to agree on sensitive justice issues such as the European evidence warrant.
The new warrant will enable authorities in one country to request evidence from another EU member state to support criminal cases in 32 categories of offences. Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini congratulated ministers on "achieving this very important goal. You probably remember over the past months my personal disappointed due to the fact that we found ourselves in a real stalemate", he said.
The sticking points over the European Evidence Warrant firstly involved Germany, which insisted it needed a definition of certain crimes in the proposal.
EU ministers had for months struggled to agree on the new warrant, agreeing on common definitions of 32 serious criminal offences - such as murder or acts of terror - for which the evidence warrant could be used.
However, yesterday ministers agreed to allow Germany to retain an "opt out" if it was requested for evidence on six of the 32 serious crimes. These included terrorism, sabotage, cybercrime and racketeering.
Meanwhile, the Netherlands wanted the right to refuse evidence requests from other nations if part of the crime had been committed on its territory. EU diplomat said the Netherlands also feared that it could be swamped with requests for evidence in cases of drug smuggling and money laundering.
It succeeded in having a clause included which means they can refuse another EU country's demand for evidence if the crime took place on the requesting state's territory. But ministers yesterday restricted their ability to use this clause saying "the decision to refuse must be taken exceptionally and on a case by case basis".
The commission recently asked member states to lift their right to national vetoes on laws it proposes in the sensitive area of criminal justice. If all 25 EU states agree, the commission would be empowered to initiate legislation on cross-border policing and judicial co-operation.