Home Office confirms ten EU countries will not extradite nationals to UK

In a letter sent to the EU Security and Justice Sub-Committee of the House of Lords earlier this month, the Home Office confirmed that ten EU States will opt-in to the nationality exception in Title VII of Part 3 of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement 2020 (“the TCA”), which makes provision for post-Brexit surrender arrangements between the UK and the EU. Article 83 of Title VII allows any Member State or the UK to notify the Specialised Committee on Law Enforcement and Judicial Cooperation of the fact it will not extradite its own nationals.

The ten EU States identified in the letter are Croatia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Latvia, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia and Sweden. Further, Austria and the Czech Republic will only extradite their own nationals to the UK with their consent. During the transition period, Germany, Austria and Slovenia all declined to extradite nationals to the UK citing constitutional rules. The UK will not be opting in to the nationality bar and it is unclear to what extent this increased uptake by EU States was anticipated by the UK Government.