AUSTRIA’S LETTER ADDRESSED TO THE LITHUANIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY INCLUDES NO NEW INFORMATION
On the evening of 21 July, a representative from the Embassy of Lithuania in Vienna (Austria) received a letter of the Austrian Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs addressed to foreign ministers of the Baltic States, copies of the letter were also sent to EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding and all the other EU foreign ministers.
“Lithuania is grateful to its Austrian colleagues for their efforts; however, we regret that this letter does not contain anything new. Lithuania is already aware of the arguments that the letter contains. Moreover, we have also made public why Lithuania does not regard these statements as arguments,” Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Audronius Ažubalis commented on the letter.
He stressed that as soon as possible Lithuania still expected to receive a detailed reply from the Austrian Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs to the note of 18 July and a reply of the EU Commissioner to the letter of three Baltic States of 18 July.
The note requests Austria to explain on what basis and why so hastily the decision was taken to release the suspect in the January 13th case.
The Minister reiterates hope that the working group, established by the Lithuanian and Austrian Ministries of Justice on 21 July, will clarify all the factual circumstances related to the incident when Mikhail Golovatov was released. However, the Minister stresses that this issue will be further raised at the European level, so that similar incidents would not happen again in the future.
A.Ažubalis also emphasizes that Lithuania remembers well the support of Austria for Lithuania’s struggle to restore Independence in 1991 and calls on distinguishing between a long-term partnership and the quest to discover the truth in specific legal situations.
“Lithuania’s challenges of today include, first of all, the quest to find out why Austria has ignored the EU law, to make sure that Austria’s actions are appropriately assessed in the whole of the European Union, and to ensure that this lesson of the lack of solidarity is well learnt in the European Union. Learning from mistakes should strengthen and bring the EU partners closer together. In this context, the protection of Lithuanian’s interests is also the fight for the European Union and its values,” A.Ažubalis said.
We would like to remind everyone that on 20 July the Prosecutor General’s Office of Lithuania informed the Austrian Ministry of Justice that Lithuania, as V.Reding has publically said, is aware about the clause that is in effect in Austria regarding the application of the European arrest warrant only to criminal offences committed after 7 August 2002. However, Lithuania is also aware of the fact that, according to the Republic of Austria, the European arrest warrant in such cases shall be automatically treated as a request for extradition of a person.
Therefore, in the case of M.Golovatov, not only the Austrian Extradition and Mutual Legal Assistance Act had to be applied, but also the European Union law and acts of law of the EU and (or) of the international law that constitute an integral part of the Austrian federal law and take precedence over the national legislation: the 1995 Convention on Simplified Extradition Procedures between Member States of the European Union that was drafted on the basis of Article K.3 of the Treaty on European Union and the European Convention on Extradition of 1957 of the Council of Europe.
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