The Ultimate (but not the Only) Remedy for Securing Fundamental Rights in the EAW System? Some Reflections on Puig Gordi and E. D. L

This Insight offers a combined reading of the ECJ rulings in Puig Gordi and E. D. L., with a view to investigating their impact on the theorisation and place of the Aranyosi and Căldăraru test in the EAW framework. Notwithstanding multiple calls for overcoming that twofold assessment, the Court has strenuously upheld the test’s structure in subsequent case-law. Against this background, the Puig Gordi and E. D. L. rulings give further insight into the ECJ's approach towards securing fundamental rights in the EAW system. On the one hand, the Court in Puig Gordi has halted any aspiration to modify the Aranyosi and Căldăraru test; on the other hand, the E. D. L. ruling clarified that the test does not constitute the only avenue to protect the defendant’s fundamental rights. In this light, the Insight shows that the Aranyosi and Căldăraru test shall be construed as the ultimate remedy to that aim. Executing authorities shall undergo the two-step assessment only if the EAW Framework Decision does not afford any alternative legal avenue to avoid serious risks of violation of the defendant’s fundamental rights. This approach is likely to project the fundamental rights discourse in the EAW context to a new dimension. The ECJ’s explicit refusal to modify the Aranyosi and Căldăraru test may dissuade further calls in that direction. Conversely, the ECJ reasoning discloses that the EAW Framework Decision may afford valuable and underestimated alternatives to the two-step test, whose potential still needs to be explored.