Why Opt Out Of The European Arrest Warrants?

[jake-the-peg]

The House of Lords has criticised the Governments plans to opt out of Europen Crime enforcement legislation

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22256523

Whatever your views on Europe why would we want to opt out of something that makes it easier and quicker to extradite Criminals and paedaphiles to face justice back in the UK

Will this not just lead to a resurrgence of the Costa-del-crime with criminals like Ronnie Biggs giving us the finger from a sun lounger in Spain?

[jim360]

It's not just the EAW but another 129 separate measures. Some of these are useful, others are perhaps not. The ones that are not number only three according to the government so far. Amusingly one of the measures to be opted out of includes a cross-Europe attempt to combat illegal immigration.

Yet another badly-thought-through idea from the government. Quelle surprise.

[Gromit]

The opt out is a shameful derEliction of Duty by May, the Home Secretary.

Here are the full list of the measures we will be disgarding.

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/120051/table-of-measures.pdf

Nothing leaps out as being unacceptable. Quite the contrary, the measures are exactly what we need and want.

May is playing politics with lives here. She is 'clawing back powers from the EU' to please the EuroSceptics in her party. But by doing so, she is making it easier for terrorists and illegal immigrants to escape justice.

[youngmafbog]

I don't agree with you. We need to claw powers back from the EU and owning our own laws and power over our people is one of them. This is a start.

It does not stop agreements and extradition, we have such agreements with countries outside the EU.

As for immigration, since when have the French(or any other EU country) played ball? All we get is a problem getting rid of them; as dictated to by Europe.

[jim360]

If you want to leave Europe that's - well, not fine in my opinion, but understandable. The point is that this isn't about leaving Europe - indeed immediately after withdrawing from these 130 powers the intention is to renegotiate our way back into some (most) of them. In that sense it's a cynical attempt to appear as if we are clawing back powers from Europe without actually achieving that in any meaningful way.

Soe of these policies are useful (the EAW in particular, which we made use of in the case of the girl and teacher who ran away late in last year), others perhaps not so useful - the measure to curb illegal immigration has perhaps not been all that effective. But usually more is achieved in co-operation than on our own.

[Gromit]

Youngmafbog,

You may not like it, but for he moment we are part of the EU. We are able to opt out of stuff we do not agree with. In this instance we seem to be opting out of stuff we do agree with. We want to opt out just so we can opt in again. Utterly barmy.

[jake-the-peg]

I can see the point of repatriating some powers - I don't agree with them but I think the case is arguable and respect the opinions of people who differ.

To me this seems different - these agreements are there to safeguard all of us - I cannot see the advantage of not being part of the European Arrest Warrent - we have had rather strong difference of opinns with the Americans over extradition but I'm not aware of any such problems with Europe.


I don't think this is just May trying to throw bones to the Euroskeptics although she is clearly trying to position herself as a leadership candidate after the election

I do think this exposes apolitical weakness though - they are opening themselves up to being accused of letting their anti-Europe Dogma allow criminals to walk all over us

[FredPuli43]

youngmafbog, are you a drug dealer with an interest in child pornography who likes to cause trouble at football matches and is disqualified from driving? And do you wish to pursue any of these interests elsewhere in Europe?

If so, your objections are understandable since the measures, which it is proposed we opt out of, include those matters.

But do tell. Looking at the whole list in the link above, which do you think undesirable measures for us to be party to?

[Gromit]

Fred,

Youngmafbog and the Euro Sceptics does not object to to he measures because hey are bad. He object because they are not British and he thinks they have been imposed on us from Euroland. He seems to ignore the fact that elected British MEPs have not voted against any of the measures before the EU adopted them. We have agreed, maybe even written the laws that May is trying to opt us out of. But if it looks like bashing the EU then it is great as far as YMB and his ilk are concerned. They are not bothered that it is helping terrorists evade the law.

[ToraToraTora]

I think any right minded person would accept the principle of the EAW idea, what worries me is that such powers would be misused. We know that the EU is essentially a corrupt club for EU big wigs to give jobs to their useless relatives. The problem comes when trumped up charges or accusations are used to effectively visit retribution on EU enemies. I just don't trust them with this kind of power.

[jim360]

Then we should make the system work - for the whole of the EU, not just for us -- or get out altogether. This weird and dishonest half-way house does no-one any favours at all.

[New Judge]

I quite agree, jim. And if you have been following my musings it will come as no surprise to you to learn that my chosen option would be to get out altogether.

All these measures sound fine. They are “for everybody’s protection”, “for our own good”, “to protect us from terrorists and paedophiles” etc. etc. But whilst most countries can be trusted to exercise their powers responsibly, a number cannot. Whether they are good or bad is not the issue. These measures are yet another step towards a federal European State. Nobody asked the UK electorate whether they are agreeable to such a State but once again the EU prefers to achieve its aims slice-by-slice “salami” style. Stealth is their weapon of choice because they know that if the question was posed the UK electorate (and those of a number of other nations) would deliver a resounding rejection. And so does the UK government.