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<p>All EU member states have ratified the 1957 Council of Europe Convention on Extradition
(ECE). Consequently, they will all have legislation that allows them to operate the
ECE with other ECE signatories who do not use the Arrest Warrant. However, a number
of EU member states have subsequently passed specific legislation to implement the
Arrest Warrant and would need to pass new domestic legislation in order to allow them
to operate the ECE with the UK. In some cases, this could be a lengthy process. For
example, we believe that it would take the Netherlands at least a year to pass the
necessary legislation and during this time they would not be able to issue extradition
requests to the UK, or respond to UK extradition requests. Effectively, this would
make both countries a safe haven for each others’ criminals.<br><br>Under the 1957
European Convention on Extradition, 22 Member States may also refuse to extradite
its own nationals which means that some people may never face justice. In non-European
Arrest Warrant cases, the following EU Member States have an absolute bar on extraditing
their own nationals to the UK:<br><br>Austria<br>Belgium<br>Czech Republic<br>Finland
<br>France<br>Germany<br>Greece<br>Latvia<br>Luxembourg<br>Slovakia<br>Slovenia<br>Spain<br>Sweden<br><br>A
further nine have made declarations to the 1957 European Convention on Extradition
to the effect that they will not extradite their own nationals:<br><br>Bulgaria<br>Croatia<br>Cyprus<br>Estonia<br>Hungary<br>Lithuania<br>Poland<br>Portugal<br>Romania</p><p>
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