Letter dated 24 January 2007 from Joan
Ryan MP, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Home Office
DOCS: 5597/05 AND
13080/06. DRAFT COUNCIL
FRAMEWORK DECISION
ON THE
APPLICATION OF
THE PRINCIPLE
OF MUTUAL
RECOGNITION TO
JUDGEMENTS IN
CRIMINAL MATTERS
IMPOSING CUSTODIAL
SENTENCES OR
MEASURES INVOLVING
DEPRIVATION OF
LIBERTY FOR
THE PURPOSE
OF THEIR
ENFORCEMENT IN
THE EUROPEAN
UNION
Thank you for your letter of 11 January about
the draft EU prisoner transfer agreement and the Governments'
stance on this proposal at the JHA Council meeting in December.
You asked whether it was the UK's intention to signal agreement
to the Framework Decision at the December JHA Council, thereby
overriding the scrutiny reserve resolution. I can assure you that
was not the case.
Whilst recognising that the text remains subject
to parliamentary scrutiny, the Government is content with the
approach taken in the draft Framework Decision and it was in that
context that we encouraged the then Finnish Presidency to seek
a deal between all delegations on its compromise package. However,
it was clear from the documents that went to he JHA Council and
the current state of negotiations, that the most Council could
have concluded, should unanimity have been achieved, was a general
approach on that deal. As you are aware a general approach allow
delegations the right to re-open points on the text should they
have the need to do so. Indeed, should a general approach have
been reached, the text would have been subject to further work
at expert level, and specifically the Annex to the Framework Decision.
The UK's parliamentary scrutiny reserve had also been clearly
recorded.
The Working Group will resume work on the detail
of the accompanying Annex to the Framework Decision on 24 January,
whilst in parallel the current German Presidency is undertaking
high level discussions with the one remaining Member State which
had substantive concerns with the current draft of the Framework
Decision.
It is likely that the Framework Decision will
be considered again t the JHA Council on 15-16 February. In light
of your concerns my officials have investigated the possibility
of bringing forward the Committees debate on the Framework Decision
which is due to take place on 20 February. However, because of
the Parliamentary recess and the commitments of both Ministers
and the Committee, this has not proved possible. I would like
to reassure you, however, that the Government will at most participate
in a general approach on this matter and re-iterate our parliamentary
scrutiny reserve at the Council.
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