Louise Haigh comments on Barnier's warning that Britain will have to leave Europol & new analysis on the European Arrest Warrant

As the EU’s chief negotiator warns Britain over law enforcement and security cooperation, new analysis reveals 10,000 deported thanks to European Arrest Warrant

As Michel Barnier warns Britain that it will have to leave Europol, new analysis by Labour underlines the extent of the UK’s cooperation with the EU on law enforcement.

• The UK has deported over 10,000 suspected criminals under the European Arrest Warrant (EAW)
• 1,455 suspects have been returned to Britain to face justice.
• 2016-17 was the seventh consecutive year in which the UK deported over 1,000 suspects.

Louise Haigh MP, Labour’s Shadow Policing Minister, said:

“Close cooperation with our European neighbours is vital in taking dangerous criminals off our streets and ensuring offenders cannot evade justice simply by crossing a border.

“So for Britain to leave Europol or end other cooperation arrangements it would be a huge blow, threatening our national security and risking critical information falling between the gaps. 

“And yet the Tories’ inflexible approach risks us being turfed out of the security apparatus we helped create and which has contributed to our safety and security for many years.  

“It is absolutely imperative to our future security that Britain remains an integral part of these vital arrangements. The Prime Minister needs to start putting the best interests of the country ahead of those in her party who would be happy to see us crash out of Europe without a deal on security.”

Ends

Notes to editors

• The EU’s chief negotiator told a security conference in Berlin today that the UK “will no longer be a member of the European Defence Agency or Europol” (Independent, 29 November 2017,http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/brexit-europol-michel-barnier-speech-kicked-out-european-police-cooperation-eu-benefits-amber-rudd-a8082081.html).

• UK funding of Europol amounts to £8.4 million per year (Baroness Williams, Hansard, Written Question HL1415, 24 July 2016, http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Lords/2016-07-21/HL1415/).

• The UK uses Europol more than almost any other country. UK law enforcement's use of Europol has increased over time. The Secure Information Exchange Network Application (SIENA) is the main conduit for all operational information passing to and through Europol. The UK exchanged 26% more messages on SIENA in 2015 than in 2014; and initiated 22% more cases on it over the same period (HM Government, The UK’s cooperation with the EU on justice and home affairs, and on foreign policy and security issues, March 2016, https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/521926/The_UK_s_cooperation_with_the_EU_on_justice_and_home_affairs__and_on_foreign_policy_and_security_issues.pdf).

• Europol is just one example of the great use Britain makes of security co-operation. In 2015, the UK made 105,164 requests for overseas criminal record checks to other EU Member States, compared to 8,536 in 2010, an increase of over 1100% (James Brokenshire, Hansard, Written Answer 30,794, 11 March 2016, http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2016-03-11/30794/).

• It comes as the NCA publishes statistics for the use of the European Arrest Warrant up to 2016/17. By combining the latest figures with historic data, it can be seen that the UK has deported 10,061 suspected criminals under the EAW since 2004.

• As Home Secretary, Theresa May warned that serious offenders would have escaped justice without the EAW.

“Since 2009 alone, the Arrest Warrant has been used to extradite from the UK 57 suspects for child sex offences, 86 for rape and 105 for murder. In the same period, 63 suspects for child sex offences, 27 for rape and 44 for murder were extradited back to Britain to face charges. A number of these suspects would probably have not been extradited back to Britain without the Arrest Warrant. We owe it to their victims, and to their loved ones, to bring these people to justice”.

Theresa May, Hansard, 9 July 2013, c. 178, https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2013-07-09/debates/13070952000002/TreatyOnTheFunctioningOfTheEU

• And the latest statistics back her up. Since 2009/10, the UK has deported hundreds of people suspected of the most serious crimes, including rape, murder, and child sex offences.

• Barnier’s announcement is particularly embarrassing for the Home Office because Amber Rudd has previously  insisted our security cooperation with the EU would be undiminished, while a Home Office minister claimed Europol membership would be a subject for negotiation.

“We are leaving the European Union but I can reassure him that our co-operation on security with our European and global allies will be undiminished.”

Amber Rudd, Hansard, September 5^th 2016, c. 9, https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2016-09-05/debates/1609052000002/OralAnswersToQuestions

Europol, like all the other EU measures, will be subject to the wider UK and EU negotiations on post-Brexit arrangements. The Government will consider all available options for cooperation arrangements with Europol once the UK has left the EU.”

Brandon Lewis, Hansard, Written Question 43706, September 5^th 2016, http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2016-07-20/43706/

• And in March this year, the Home Secretary said it was a “priority” for the Government to remain part of the EAW.

“I certainly agree with the principle that the European arrest warrant is an effective tool that is essential to the delivery of effective judgment on the murderers, rapists and paedophiles on whom we have managed to seek judgment. It is a priority for us to ensure that we remain part of the arrangement, and I can reassure Members in all parts of the House that our European partners want to achieve that as well.”

Amber Rudd, Hansard, 6 March 2017, c. 550, https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2017-03-06/debates/AF7A3445-626D-45A5-973A-FBAFEE4A40C3/OralAnswersToQuestions

• But by September she was forced to concede that the Tories planned to end our participation in the EAW and other security and law enforcement arrangements.

“Take the European Arrest Warrant. It means suspects and wanted criminals who have escaped to another European country can be arrested and returned to face justice quickly ... When we leave the EU, these current arrangements will end”

Amber Rudd, the Sun, 17 September 2017, https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/4481953/amber-rudd-european-union-security-treaty-britain-terorroism/

• Government sources have noted No. 10’s fears about aggravating hard Brexit-supporting Tories over EAW.

“Downing Street is hyper-sensitive to re-opening the long-running row over the European Arrest Warrant with hard Brexiteers. It’s the one thing they are worried about losing the back-benchers over.”

Government source, Telegraph, 7 August 2017, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/08/07/exclusive-british-judges-will-able-block-extradition-requests/

• In fact, key members of Theresa May’s Government have been outspoken opponents of greater Justice and Home Affairs cooperation, in particular the EAW. 

• When outlining his opposition to Theresa May’s decision to opt back into the EAW, David Davis accused France of habitually torturing suspects, as well as making disparaging comments about other member states’ justice systems and highlighting what he perceived to be unfairness towards Julian Assange because Sweden had issued an EAW on a suspected rape charge.

JEREMY VINE:                     What do you make of the Paris bomber story? We had this guy for ten years under the old system before he finally got extradited.

DAVID DAVIS:                    He was not extradited because the British courts thought he’d be tortured…

JEREMY VINE:                     In France?

DAVID DAVIS:                    In France, that’s right. He’d already been beaten in custody and they thought he’d be tortured and/or sent off to Algeria. So that was the reason, very simple and…

JEREMY VINE:                     That’s crazy, isn’t it?

DAVID DAVIS:                    Is it? I mean the British court made a judgement on the basis of the facts in front of them, you know.

JEREMY VINE:                     The French are among our closest allies – well they were the last time I looked.

DAVID DAVIS:                    Yeah, but they have some bad habits, which sometimes make it difficult to extradite people to them

David Davis, Jeremy Vine, R2, 10 November 2014, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g64s79oMrQwm

And this is the problem - we are required under the European Arrest Warrant to treat every other country in Europe as having an equal justice system to our own. Well, I’m afraid Greece doesn’t, neither does Italy, neither do a number of the ex-Soviet countries, Romania and Bulgaria are very, very good examples.

David Davis, Jeremy Vine, R2, 10 November 2014, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g64s79oMrQwm

You see, we bluntly should deal differently with, let’s say, Germany and Denmark with really, really good justice systems than we should with those who have got bad justice systems.  

David Davis, Jeremy Vine, R2, 10 November 2014, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g64s79oMrQwm

“I mean to be fair to Theresa she has put in place a bill, which basically says it’s got to a proportionate; in other words you’ve got to have a potential sentence of more than 12 months. She says that you can’t extradite until you’re actually decided on the charging but unfortunately charging is British concept and under most European law you decide to pursue the case the charge comes very late so Julian Assange, for example, who is under a European Arrest Warrant, and I’m no great fan so there’s no defence of him, he’s under a European Arrest Warrant the Swedes haven’t decided a judgement they want to question him, you know. So these improvements are marginal improvements, but they don’t solve the intrinsic problem. You could have a British citizen required to go back abroad under a trumped up charge to face a justice system that doesn’t deserve the name - that’s the real core problem.”

David Davis, Jeremy Vine, R2, 10 November 2014, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g64s79oMrQwm

• While Dominic Raab accused Theresa May of “scare tactics” and questioned her motives for supporting the EAW.

“The Home Secretary, Theresa May, argues we should stay in the EAW, saying new changes brought into law this year will protect the innocent. But those changes are flimsy and don’t address cases of mistaken identity or apply to UK citizens arrested outside Britain. And if we opt to stay in the EAW, extradition of British citizens will in future be ultimately determined by the European Court of Justice, not the British Supreme Court. Ministers have fallen back on scare tactics, arguing that Britain would become a ‘safe haven’ for criminals without the EAW.

In fact, any British fugitive on the run in Europe can just be deported straight home”.

Dominic Raab, Daily Mail, 15 November 2014, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2836161/DOMINIC-RAAB-UK-opt-Kafkaesque-web-injustice.html

“The real reason police and the Home Office like the EAW is because it is cheaper and quicker.”

Dominic Raab, Daily Mail, 15 November 2014, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2836161/DOMINIC-RAAB-UK-opt-Kafkaesque-web-injustice.html