Mary Reid

Some pretty significant information about Europe has been rather overwhelmed by all the other noise from Westminster this week.

Back in 2002 the European Arrest Warrant was agreed across the EU. This speeds up the time taken to extradite criminals between EU countries. Before then it took, on average, 18 months to extradite a British criminal back to the UK so they could stand trial. In some cases it took up to 5 years. During that time many of them were out of prison, living the high life and free to commit further crimes.

The European Arrest Warrant reduced that time to 43 days.

Now we are talking about some very serious offences here - I've seen a list of twenty criminals who were extradited speedily under the new regulations, and once back in the UK were convicted of rape, murder, child sex and firearm offences. One of them was the failed 21/7 bomber Hussain Osman, who was subsequently sentenced to a minimum of 40 years in jail.

And yet, the Conservatives voted against the European Arrest Warrant.

Yes, you read that correctly. They opposed this vital piece of international co-operation that has greatly improved the safety of citizens across Europe. (Needless to say, the Liberal Democrat MEPs supported it)

Between 2004 and 2008, 335 UK citizens were extradited from European countries under the European Arrest Warrant. They then faced trial here.

All these people were dealt with promptly; without the European Arrest Warrant they would have been free for months, if not years.

I've written before about my concerns that the Conservatives are increasingly isolating themselves in Europe. There is a great difference between the soft views on Europe that they express when speaking to us in the UK, and the hardline position they are actually taking up in the European Parliament. How can any of their MEPs represent British interests if they refuse to work with political groups from other countries? How can they provide any value to UK citizens if they oppose all international co-operation around such sensible policies as the European Arrest Warrant?

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