Top EU Diplomat Chief Suggests Overhauling Extradition System

MADRID (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 17th December, 2019) EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said Monday that European countries should improve their judicial cooperation amid the ongoing legal battles over the extradition of fugitive Catalan separatists.

He said Europe was building a "supranational judicial space." In the meantime, governments should realize that petitions for extradition are handled by judges, who need to make sure that a fugitive will be treated fairly by the country they are being extradited to.

"Naturally, this can be improved and it should be improved. In my opinion, there should be more judicial cooperation between the countries.

The system of European warrants can be revised," Borrell told reporters.

He spoke at the Asia-Europe Meeting in Madrid just as a court in Brussels again delayed its decision on whether to extradite Catalonia's former leader Carles Puigdemont to Spain to face sedition charges.

European warrants have also been issued for three former officials from Puigdemont's governments who fled to Belgium and Scotland for fear of lengthy jail terms after they helped organize an independence vote in Catalonia two years ago.