Prague, July 19 (CTK) – The Senate, upper house of Czech parliament, approved the implementation on the European Investigation Order in harmony with the respective EU directive on Thursday.
According to the new legislation, the international cooperation will be based on a special order form and not on a request as so far.
The EU member states were to transpose this European directive into their legislation by the second half of May 2017.
The Czech Republic is one of the last EU countries not to have done so and it may face sanctions for the delay. The bill is yet to be signed by President Milos Zeman into law.
The European Investigation Order is to be used for legal assistance in obtaining evidence in another member state. The bill regulates the procedure for the issuance of the order and describes the reasons for dismissing an order or postponing it.
The order will also apply to the seizure of belongings in another member state for the purpose of evidence and to interrogation through a video conference or by phone and for applying wiretapping in other member states.
Besides, the judiciary will be able to issue the order for temporary takeover of a person that is in custody or in prison in another member state to obtain evidence.
The lower house of Czech parliament, the Chamber of Deputies, approved the bill last month. The Chamber received the bill in the past election term but did not manage to deal with it before the general election held in October 2017.
