Parliament approves transfer of directive on criminal trial and arrest warrant

The Assembly of the Republic approved this Friday as a whole the transposition of the community directives concerning criminal proceedings and the European Arrest Warrant (EAW), with a government proposal to continue the discussion on the specialty.

PS, PSD, Chega, Liberal Initiative (IL), Left Bloc (BE) and PAN voted for the diploma, while PCP and Livre abstained. The bill will now go before the Committee on Constitutional Affairs, Rights, Freedoms and Guarantees after Justice Minister Catarina Sarmento i Castro refuted opposition criticism of the delay in transposing these issues into national law.

“We all agree. These rights matter a lot and these improvements are relevant. These rights have been in law since 2003 and that the Commission [Europeia] asked were there improvements. Transposition done, there are improvements. This government has come here to address some needs for improvement, and that is strengthening the legal protection and technical improvement of these directives,” he said.

The Minister stressed the importance of the rights of foreign accused to understand the process in which they are being prosecuted, to have access to information and to have access to a lawyer.

Catarina Sarmento and Castro also highlighted among the proposed changes the possibility of extending the MDE issuance period for another 30 days, while the authorities of the country that issued the MDE were informed of this situation.

Criticism of the delay in the transfer was voiced by Livre’s Rui Tavares, who recalled that 13 years ago, when he was in the European Parliament, he was a “shadow reporter” for a piece of legislation now carried over into the national legal system. The deputy questioned the means of translation in the judicial services, noting that the country cannot “promise people rights that they will not be able to fulfill later.”

The SDP, through deputy Andrei Neto, said that the party would follow the executive’s proposal and that “it can only welcome” measures to ensure “greater protection of citizens from abuses that could jeopardize rights, freedoms and guarantees”, but it did not. do not regret the “time” of legislative changes: “Better late than never.”

IL MP Patricia Gilvaz criticized “that these reshuffles are happening late and only after the process has been opened” in community bodies, and defended the consideration of establishing a “procedural response mechanism” regarding the quality of translation in the context of the court, despite guaranteeing not object to the proposed law.

The PCP and PAN spoke in the same vein, with Communist Alma Rivera stating that “the general meaning of this proposal is not objectionable” and Inés Souza Real stressing that the transposition of these directives includes “the measures that are most important”. elementary justice.

Chega, in the voice of MP Filipe Melo, stressed that the transposition “should have been done more than ten years ago”. However, in this context, the party introduced a bill guaranteeing the right to a Portuguese sign language interpreter for deaf citizens or a foreign language interpreter for foreign citizens, but the PS rejected the diploma despite votes in favor of Cheg, SDP. , IL, BE and PAN or abstaining from PCP and Livre.