People charged in cross-border criminal cases must have rights to appeal, make representations and get translation aid, said Civil Liberties Committee MEPs on its last meeting. They inserted these rights in a Council proposal to ensure that people cannot be tried twice for the same crime in two different Member States. The proposal goes to a plenary vote on Thursday next week.

The Council proposal aims to ensure that the same person is not made to undergo parallel criminal proceedings in different Member States in respect of the same facts, by arranging for direct consultations so as to concentrate the proceedings in one Member State. Judicial authorities would be required to exchange a specified minimum set of information in cross border cases.

The committee's amendments aim to strengthen procedural rights: the person formally charged should have a right to appeal, to make representations, and to receive appropriate translation, interpretation and legal aid.MEPs also inserted a prohibition on sharing information to do with so-called "racial" or ethnic origin, religion, belief or sexual orientation.

Whose jurisdiction?

The judicial co-operation agency Eurojust should also be more extensively involved in the process, said MEPs. Furthermore, although the Council proposal cites co-operation and consensus as the leading principles for avoiding conflicts, the rapporteur regrets that the proposal "does not provide for a mechanism to really solve conflicts of competence nor for appropriate criteria to establish which Member States should have the jurisdiction".

MEPs adopted the report by Renate Weber (ALDE, RO), with 46 votes in favour, 4 against and 2 abstentions.

Currently, there is already a cross-border judicial cooperation between EU Member States in civil and commercial matters, thanks to a diretive of 2001 which was amended in 2008. This network of cooperation is a clear example of effective access to justice in cross-border litigation.