Is One Step Enough? Serious Illness as a Ground for Non-execution of a European Arrest Warrant

The subject of the commentary is the judgment of the Court of Justice regarding the possibility of non-execution of a European Arrest Warrant regarding a person suffering serious, chronic, and potentially irreversible illness. Since the Framework Decision on the European arrest warrant does not provide the ground for the non-execution of the warrant based on the threat to the health of the person concerned, the referring court was in doubt, whether such a premise can justify the non-execution of the warrant. The main legal problem dealt with in the commentary was the consideration of whether in such a case the executing judicial authority may refuse to execute such a warrant, and, if so, on what legal basis.