Are Alternatives to the European Arrest Warrant Underused? The Case for an Integrative Approach to Judicial Cooperation Mechanisms in the EU Criminal Justice Area

In the application of the European arrest warrant (eaw) mechanism, the principles of mutual trust and mutual recognition have come under the pressure of serious fundamental rights concerns in some EU Member States in particular. The latest chapter in a yet unfinished tale has been written on 17 December 2020, when the EU Court of Justice handed down its preliminary ruling in two cases in which Poland had requested the Dutch authorities to surrender two Polish nationals (joined cases L/P).1 In its preliminary ruling, the Court has, amongst other things, upheld the requirement for executing authorities to still carry out the second, individualised, step of the two-step test that has been developed in Aranyosi/Căldăraru and got confirmed in lm.2 It therefore remains required for executing authorities to assess whether there is a real risk that the sought person him/herself will be subject of a breach of the fundamental right in respect of which it was established (under the first element of