THE PROJECT
STREAM will increase coherence in the use of the European Arrest Warrant (EAW) by promoting an EU-wide understanding of the criminal justice rules and safeguards applying to the different phases of surrender proceedings in a post-Lisbon Treaty context.
The Lisbonisation of the European Criminal Justice Area gradually introduced new EU legal standards – substantial and procedural guarantees – that currently apply to EAW issuing and validation, EAW recognition and execution, and access to effective remedies pre and post surrender. The exact content of these standards and their implications for the operation of the EAW are constantly interrogated before European courts (including both EU and member states courts). By advancing the state-of-the-art knowledge on questions raised and solutions adopted by EU and national courts to secure surrender procedures’ compliance with relevant criminal justice rules and safeguards, the project will help in addressing the interpretative doubts and practical challenges that currently hamper mutual recognition under the EAW scheme.
STREAM will create an EAW Jurisprudential Observatory to monitor emerging interpretative questions and application challenges related to the practical use of the EAW. The STREAM Repository of EAW Case-law analysis will provide detailed accounts of solutions adopted by the CJEU and national judicial authorities to conjugate mutual recognition with protection of the fundamental rights of suspects and accused persons, and respect for the core essence of different national constitutional traditions. STREAM will also bring light to fair trial challenges related to the operation of the EAW, and further consistency between this mutual recognition and the EU procedural rights acquis.
A key added value of the STREAM Project is the STREAM Academic Network, which is composed by leading criminal law experts who will deliver in-depth analysis on the ways in which judicial authorities in 14 EU Member States have interpreted and applied the fundamental rights and rule of law safeguards which – under EU and national law – govern the issuing, validation, recognition, and execution of EAW. The EU wide dimension of the project is ensured by the STREAM EAW Jurisprudential Observatory, and the involvement of the STREAM partner networks, which cover the 27 EU Member States.
Under the STREAM Project, state-of-the-art research and comparative analysis are interlinked with interactive consultations and exchanges of knowledge among ‘EAW end users’ (i.e. prosecutors, judges, and lawyers). Based on these activities, STREAM will deliver practical guidance and specialised trainings for legal practitioners, including both judicial authorities and defence lawyers across the EU. It will also gather testimonies to raise awareness regarding existing promising practices and develop recommendations that will help policymakers to identify solutions capable of fostering mutual recognition while protecting fundamental rights of persons concerned by surrender proceedings.
STREAM will build upon and add value to other EU funded projects by providing evidence-based answers to practical questions and obstacles faced in the day-to-day operation of the EAW, but also by fostering research-policy exchanges designed to increase effectiveness of this mutual recognition instrument and its coherence with the EU criminal justice acquis. STREAM will deliver results that complement existing normative, policy and jurisprudential guidance for the use of the EAW.