Estonia partially agrees with European Commission's infringement proceedings

  • 2022-01-06
  • BNS/TBT Staff

TALLINN – The government on Thursday considered Estonia's views on the infringement proceedings initiated against Estonia under Article 258 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and partially agreed with it.

On Nov. 12, 2021, Estonia received an official letter from the European Commission in an infringement procedure accusing Estonia of incorrect transposition of Directive 2013/48/EU. The directive concerns the right to a lawyer in criminal and European arrest warrant (EAW) proceedings and the right to have a third party informed of the deprivation of liberty and to communicate with third parties and consular authorities during the deprivation of liberty. The deadline for transposition of the directive was Nov. 27, 2016.

The Commission submitted four complaints to Estonia, of which Estonia agrees with two and disagrees with the other two.

Estonia agrees with the Commission's reprimands that the provisions of the directive concerning the notification of the person whose surrender is sought under the European Arrest Warrant of their right to a lawyer in the issuing member state have not been properly transposed into Estonian law.

In order to eliminate the shortcomings, the bill on international cooperation in criminal procedure, which is being prepared by the Ministry of Justice, will be amended. The draft law will be submitted to the ministries for approval in early 2022.

The deadline for replying to the European Commission's letter of formal notice is Jan. 12.