Key findings and FRA opinions

• Author: European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (EU body or agency)
• Pages: 11-14

11

Key f‌indings and FRA opinions

This report investi gates how several European Un ion

(EU) Member States imple ment – in practice – legal pro-

visions on certai n defence rights of perso ns suspected

or accused of crime.

Articles 47 and 48 of th e Charter of Fundamental Right s

of the European Union (Charter) guarantee various

rights of defendants in criminal proceedings. These

include the presum ption of innocence, the rig ht to a

defence, the right to a fair tr ial and the right to an ef-

fective remedy. The Roadmap for strengthening proce-

dural rights in criminal proceedings (Roadmap)

1

spells

out these rights i n further det ail. In addition , the Road-

map’s measures considerably strengthen the procedur-

al rights of person s arrested pursuant to a Eu ropean

arrest warrant (EAW).

EU Member States have been incorporating these

measures into their natio nal laws. The EU Agenc y for

Fundamental Rig hts (FRA) assessed h ow they are

being implemented in practice across several Member

States. This report p resents its main f‌i ndings, focusing

on the right to informat ion, and to access an attorn ey,

both in domestic cr iminal proceedin gs and when an

EAW is issued.

Previous FRA research on s pecif‌ic procedural rights – for

example, the rig ht to information, translation and inter-

pretation – showed that the se rights are given va rying

scope and are applie d differently across Member State s.

Similarly, the rights at i ssue in this report are not consis-

tently implemente d across the EU. This repor t aims to

bring these inconsistencies, and other implementation

challenges, to the attention of EU institutions, Member

States and legal professio nals. It also provides a dvice

on possible improvements.

1 Council of the European U nion (2009), Resolution of t he

Council on a Roa dmap for strengthen ing procedural righ ts of

suspected or accused persons in criminal proceedings,

OJ 2009 C 295, B russels, 30 November 2 009.

Procedural rights in domestic

criminal proceedings

The various right s guaranteed by the C harter and out-

lined in the Roadma p include defendants’ right to info r-

mation in crimina l proceedings from the m oment they

are aware they are suspected of hav ing committed

a crime; the right to silence and the privilege against

self-incrimination; an d the right to access a lawyer.

FRA’s research highlights several challenges when it

comes to accessing these righ ts.

Informing defendants about their rights

in an effective manner

FRA’s f‌ieldwork shows that author ities in the eight EU

Member States covered in this repo rt inform defen-

dants about their criminal procedural rights in various

ways. Most practi tioners and defend ants agree that

defendants receive this i nformation before the f‌ir st of-

f‌icial question ing. However, the information given d if-

fers in its scope and conten t, and in how it is conveyed.

This ranges from law enforcement authorities providing

defendants with comprehensive information, both in

writing and oral ly, to authorities handi ng defendants a

written leaf‌let about rights without further explanation.

Several factors determine whether or not defendants

receive information abou t their rights in a n effective

manner. These include, among others:

nlaw enforcement off‌icers assign ing defendants a

procedural status ot her than that of a suspec t – for

Note on coverage

This report summ arises the views of profession-

als and defendant s in eight EU Member States:

Austria, Bulgar ia, Denmark, Fra nce, Greece, the

Netherlands, Pol and and Romania. FRA selec ted

these countries to cover dif ferent regions and

legal tradition s. All of these states a pply the

EAW. In addition, all of them – e xcept for Den-

mark, because of i ts specif‌ic opt-out agreement

– are bound by the Roadma p’s measures. All EU

Member States, however, regardless of any opt-

out regime, are bound by the minimum stand-

ards of defence rights as devel oped in the case

law of the European Court of H uman Rights and

embodied in the Roadmap’s instruments.