• U.S.-EU negotiations began September 12, 2001, recognizing that exchanges of investigative information, evidence, and witnesses and surrender of fugitives needed to proceed more quickly and efficiently, taking advantage of today’s technology.

• Once signed, all 27 Member States have now formally ratified the agreements. The U.S. Senate ratified the two overarching agreements, U.S.-EU, and the accompanying instruments (protocols to existing agreements and new agreements) for each of the 27 Member States so that the terms of the broader agreements can be fully implemented.

• The agreements will enter into force with the formal exchange of bilateral instruments of ratification with all 27 Member States and with the EU (completion expected this fall with the entry into force in early 2010).

• Advances/advantages -- U.S.-EU Extradition Agreement and accompanying instruments: o Accelerates deadlines for responses o Permits less formality (streamline document authentication requirements) in requests and responses (e.g., may be made electronically or by fax in urgent situations) and permits directly-supplied supplements upon request o Eliminates listing of covered offenses and instead makes extraditable any criminal conduct, regardless of its nomenclature, that carries more than one year’s imprisonment in the requesting and requested state o Authorizes “temporary extradition” of a convicted defendant to a requesting state o Puts the US on a level footing with the Member States when a defendant is sought by more than one jurisdiction simultaneously.

• Advances/advantages -- the U.S.-EU Mutual Legal Assistance Agreement and accompanying instruments: o Accelerates deadlines for responses o Permits less formality in requests and responses, as above, and encourages direct contact o Makes assistance available in certain administrative (e.g., SEC, FTC), as well as judicial proceedings o Provides more immediate access by the U.S. to EU financial data and by Member States to such data in the U.S. through use of a “hit/no hit” initial inquiry o Authorizes video teleconferencing for the taking of witness testimony o Authorizes the participation of U.S. law enforcement in “Joint Investigative Teams (JITs)” along with their European counterparts.

Source: Mary Lee Warren, U.S. Senior Justice Counsel for the European Union and International Criminal Law Matters