Court of Justice 30 April 2019, C-508/18 and C-82/19 PPU (OG and PI.)

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In Joined Cases C‑508/18 and C‑82/19 PPU, Advocate General Campos Sánchez-Bordona opines that the term 'issuing judicial authority' in Article 6(1) of Framework Decision 2002/584/JHA does not encompass the Public Prosecutor's Office, as that institution lacks the structural independence from the executive — including freedom from hierarchical instructions under Paragraphs 146–147 of the German Law on the Judicial System (Gerichtsverfassungsgesetz) — required of an authority empowered to issue a European arrest warrant entailing potentially prolonged deprivation of liberty in the executing Member State. The Advocate General reasons that, unlike a national arrest warrant subject to prompt judicial review, an EAW demands the full independence characteristic exclusively of courts stricto sensu, since the executing judicial authority must rely on the issuing authority's assessment of the validity of the underlying national arrest warrant without the same immediacy of judicial scrutiny. Accordingly, the opinion proposes that the Court of Justice hold that neither the Public Prosecutor's Office of Lübeck nor that of Zwickau qualifies as a 'judicial authority' within the meaning of Article 6(1) of the Framework Decision.AI