Transmission and enforcement of judgments in the European Union

The framework decision 2008/909/JHA issued by the Justice Council, formed by the Ministers of Justice of all EU Member States, was transposed to the Spanish legal system through the Law 23/2014 on mutual recognition of criminal decisions in the European Union. That framework decision was born with the purpose of extending the application of the principle of mutual recognition, by virtue of which the countries of the European Union agreed the transmission and execution of EU judgments, recognizing the respective laws or decisions of sentences in criminal matters by which prison sentences are imposed.

Therefore, all decisions imposing a sentence or measure of deprivation of liberty allow the sentenced person to comply it in any EU country, provided that they has roots in the country where recognition is requested. The transmission and execution of EU judgments is a procedure that has a bidirectional character, since the sentences are transmitted by the issuing state and must be recognized by the executing state, phases known as transmission and recognition.

The law judicialises the transfer of sentenced persons for reasons of roots and reintegration, moving away from the restrictive criterion of being a national of the country of execution, and in many cases does not establish the consent of the sentenced person as necessary. In this way, the executing state is obliged to accept the transfer, unless some of the causes for refusal contemplated in the law are present, such as for example: the sentence for a crime that is not typified in the law of the executing state, having been tried twice for the same crime, or when it involves the violation of a fundamental right, among many others.