Minimum EU rights

UK citizens should be guaranteed at least a minimum standard of legal rights when overseas in EU member states and involved in criminal proceedings, peers have said.

Lord Bowness, chair of the Lords Justice and Institutions EU Sub-Committee, says: “Significant EU law-enforcement legislation, such as the European Arrest Warrant, now needs to be complemented by measures protecting European citizens.”

The Committee’s report, The European Union’s Policy on Criminal Procedure, published at the end of April, calls for the rights to be “firmly grounded in the European Court of Human Rights and other international law norms”.