Details
- Publication date
- 10 August 2026
- Author
- Directorate-General for Justice and Consumers
Description
This Commission staff working document sets out quantitative information on the practical operation of the European arrest warrant ('EAW') in 2024. The statistics are based on information provided by the Member States to the Commission between November 2025 and June 2026, using the standard questionnaire contained in Council document 11356/13 of 24 June 2013.
The questionnaire covers quantitative information from Member States acting both as issuing States and as executing States. This includes data on the number of EAWs issued and executed, the number of persons arrested, the types of offences covered, the reasons for refusal and the duration of the surrender proceedings. Only general conclusions can be drawn from the replies received, because they do not provide a complete set of data. Not all Member States replied to every question in the questionnaire and response rates have varied over the years, making statistical comparisons difficult at times.
In particular, it should be highlighted that:
the main indicators on the number of proceedings, arrests and effective surrender procedures initiated have been rather stable (i.e. the ratio between these indicators has been relatively constant over the last few years); in 2024, however, a higher percentage of the total number of arrests resulted in effective surrender and a higher percentage of the surrender proceedings initiated resulted in effective surrender compared to 2023;
it appears that some Member States do not always take the decision on whether to execute an EAW within the time limits set by the Framework Decision on the EAW, thus failing to comply with their obligations;
Article 4(6) of the Framework Decision – which allows the executing Member State to take over the execution of a sentence – triggers the highest percentage of refusals to execute EAWs compared with other mandatory and optional grounds for refusal.
Article 1(3) of the Framework Decision – which allows the executing judicial authority, in exceptional circumstances, to refuse the execution of an EAW where there is a real risk that the person, if surrendered, would suffer a serious breach of their fundamental rights – led to a higher number of refusals than in 2023.
These conclusions broadly confirm the main trends already identified in 2023.