This document is an excerpt from the EUR-Lex website
EU mutual recognition system – prison sentences and prisoner transfers
SUMMARY OF:
SUMMARY
This framework decision seeks to extend the application of the principle of mutual recognition, whereby EU countries agree to recognise one another’s laws or decisions, to judgments in criminal matters imposing prison sentences.
WHAT DOES THIS FRAMEWORK DECISION DO?
It describes how EU countries recognise and enforce each other’s judgments in regard to criminal matters. The aim is to help convicted persons to better reintegrate in society.
It allows an EU country to enforce a prison sentence imposed by another EU country against a person who resides in its territory.
It sets up a system for the transfer of convicted prisoners back to the EU country of which they are nationals (or normally live) or to another EU country with which they have close ties so that they serve their prison sentence there.
KEY POINTS
The procedure is based on the following principles:
The European Commission’s 2014 report on the implementation of the Framework Decisions 2008/909/JHA, 2008/947/JHA and 2009/829/JHA notes that, despite the efforts made to date by some EU countries, the implementation of these three acts is unsatisfactory. It calls on EU countries that have not already implemented the decisions to do so promptly.
FROM WHEN DOES THE FRAMEWORK DECISION APPLY?
It entered into force on 5 December 2008. EU countries had to incorporate it in national by 5 December 2011.
BACKGROUND
Each year, several thousand EU citizens are pursued for alleged criminal offences or are convicted in an EU country other than their own. Mutual recognition of judicial decisions is the cornerstone of judicial cooperation in criminal matters within the EU.
ACT
Council Framework Decision 2008/909/JHA of 27 November 2008 on the application of the principle of mutual recognition to judgments in criminal matters imposing custodial sentences or measures involving deprivation of liberty for the purpose of their enforcement in the European Union (OJ L 327, 5.12.2008, pp. 27–46)
RELATED ACTS
Council Framework Decision 2008/947/JHA of 27 November 2008 on the application of the principle of mutual recognition to judgments and probation decisions with a view to the supervision of probation measures and alternative sanctions (OJ L 337, 16.12.2008, pp. 102–122)
Council Framework Decision 2009/829/JHA of 23 October 2009 on the application, between Member States of the European Union, of the principle of mutual recognition to decisions on supervision measures as an alternative to provisional detention (OJ L 294, 11.11.2009, pp. 20–40)
Report from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council on the implementation by the Member States of the Framework Decisions 2008/909/JHA, 2008/947/JHA and 2009/829/JHA on the mutual recognition of judicial decisions on custodial sentences or measures involving deprivation of liberty, on probation decisions and alternative sanctions and on supervision measures as an alternative to provisional detention (COM(2014) 57 final of 5.2.2014)
Commission Staff Working Document — Tables ‘State of play’ and ‘Declarations’ accompanying the document: report from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council on the implementation by the Member States of the Framework Decisions 2008/909/JHA, 2008/947/JHA and 2009/829/JHA on the mutual recognition of judicial decisions on custodial sentences or measures involving deprivation of liberty, on probation decisions and alternative sanctions and on supervision measures as an alternative to provisional detention (SWD(2014) 34 final of 5.2.2014)
Commission Decision 2014/858/EU of 1 December 2014 on the notification by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland of its wish to participate in acts of the Union in the field of police cooperation and judicial cooperation in criminal matters adopted before the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon and which are not part of the Schengen acquis (OJ L 345, 1.12.2014, pp. 6–9)
last update 17.10.2015