Being served with a European Arrest Warrant is one of the most confusing and frightening situations you can face. Within hours you can be arrested, and within days or weeks you can be on your way to another country without really understanding what has happened or what room you have to react. If you are reading this because it affects you or a family member, the first thing to know is that there is a procedure, there are deadlines and there are rights. Understanding how it works already puts you ahead of most people. And if a warrant is already in motion, understanding is not enough on its own: that is when working with an extradition lawyer in Spain makes the practical difference.
What is a European Arrest Warrant (EAW)?
A European Arrest Warrant is a decision issued by the judicial authority of one European Union country asking another EU country to arrest and surrender a person, in order to prosecute them or have them serve a sentence. It replaces the old extradition system between member states and works in a much faster and more automatic way.
In Spain, the EAW is governed by Law 23/2014 on the mutual recognition of criminal decisions in the European Union, which transposes Framework Decision 2002/584/JHA. The underlying idea is mutual trust between European judicial systems: if a judge in another EU country requests you, the Spanish courts process that surrender unless there is a legal ground to refuse it.
The authority responsible for processing an EAW in Spain is the Audiencia Nacional (National Court), through its Central Investigating Courts.
How is the EAW different from traditional extradition?
The main difference is who decides and how much political margin is involved. Classic extradition is a procedure between states with a political stage, whereas the EAW is a purely judicial procedure, from judge to judge, with no government intervention.
This has important practical consequences:
- It is faster. Where an extradition could take months or years, an EAW is resolved in weeks.
- It is more automatic. The grounds to refuse to surrender a person are limited and set out in law; there is no broad discretionary margin as in extradition.
- The government does not decide. There is no assessment of political convenience, only a review of legality carried out by the court.
That difference is not minor: if you want to see it side by side, I explain the difference between extradition and a European Arrest Warrant and why it changes the whole defence strategy depending on who requests you.
That is why the defence in an EAW is played out on technical ground and within very short deadlines. The difference between staying or being surrendered often lies in whether your lawyer spots a ground for refusal or a defect in the warrant in time. If you need defence right now, this is exactly the work I do as an extradition and EAW defence lawyer.
How does the EAW process work in Spain?
The procedure has a clear structure, even if each case has its own particularities. These are the main stages.
Arrest and appearance before the court
When an EAW is executed in Spain, the person is arrested and brought before the Central Investigating Court of the Audiencia Nacional. At that first appearance you are informed of the existence of the warrant, of the offence for which you are requested, and of your right to consent or object to the surrender.
From the very first moment you have the right to a lawyer and to an interpreter if you need one. It is the most important moment of the process: what is decided here shapes the rest of the procedure.
The deadline to decide on surrender
This is where time becomes a decisive factor. If the person consents to the surrender, the judicial decision must be taken within the following 10 days. If they object, the general deadline to decide is 60 days, extendable by a further 30 days when justified.
Once the surrender decision is final, the transfer to the requesting country usually takes place within the following 10 days. Consenting to surrender is neither good nor bad in the abstract: sometimes it helps, sometimes it is a mistake that closes doors. That decision should be made with proper advice, not out of fear or the rush of the moment.
Can you object to the surrender? Grounds for refusal
Yes, but the objection is not based on not wanting to go; it is based on specific legal grounds recognised by the law. Spanish courts can only refuse the surrender if one of the grounds set out in Law 23/2014 applies.
Among the grounds that can lead to refusing or conditioning a surrender are:
- Double jeopardy (ne bis in idem). That you have already been judged for the same facts in Spain or in another state.
- Time limitation. That the offence or the sentence is time-barred under Spanish law when Spain has jurisdiction.
- Risk to fundamental rights. If there is a real risk of inhuman or degrading treatment, or prison conditions contrary to the rights recognised in the EU.
- Lack of dual criminality. Outside the list of 32 serious offences, that the act is not a crime in Spain.
- Return guarantees. When a Spanish citizen or resident is requested to serve a sentence, the surrender can be conditioned on serving it in Spain.
Identifying and proving one of these grounds is not simple: it requires accessing the warrant documentation, analysing the law of the requesting country and building the argument before the Audiencia Nacional. It is technical work done against the clock.
What to do if you are served with an EAW
First, and this is serious advice: do not make any decision about consenting to the surrender without having spoken first with a lawyer who knows the procedure. The initial appearance looks like a formality, but things are decided there that cannot be undone later.
Second, gather all the information you have about the procedure in the other country: whether there was already a trial, whether you knew about the case, what offence you are charged with and since when. That information is what makes it possible to assess whether there is a ground for refusal.
And third, act fast. In an EAW the deadlines run from day one, and every day counts to prepare the objection or negotiate the conditions of the surrender. When the case also has a European dimension (several countries involved, doubts about the legal basis of the warrant, possible breach of rights), specialisation in European criminal law stops being a luxury and becomes what makes the difference.
This article is for informational purposes and does not constitute legal advice. Every case has specific circumstances that can completely change the analysis. If you need concrete guidance on your situation, consult a criminal defence lawyer.
