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You are here: BAILII >> Databases >> Court of Justice of the European Communities (including Court of First Instance Decisions) >> Alchaster II [2024] EUECJ C-743/24 (26 November 2024) URL: https://www.bailii.org/eu/cases/EUECJ/2024/C74324.html Cite as: [2024] EUECJ C-743/24, ECLI:EU:C:2024:983, EU:C:2024:983

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ORDER OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE COURT

26 November 2024 (*)

( Expedited procedure )

In Case C-743/24 [Alchaster II], (i)

REQUEST for a preliminary ruling under Article 267 TFEU from the Supreme Court (Ireland), made by decision of 22 October 2024, received at the Court on 24 October 2024, in the proceedings

Minister for Justice and Equality

v

MA,

THE PRESIDENT OF THE COURT,

after hearing the Judge-Rapporteur, C. Lycourgos, and the Advocate General, M. Szpunar,

makes the following

Order

1 This request for a preliminary ruling concerns the interpretation of Article 49(1) of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (‘the Charter’).

2 The request has been made in proceedings relating to the execution, in Ireland, of four arrest warrants issued by the District Judge of the Magistrates’ Courts of Northern Ireland (United Kingdom) against MA on the basis of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement between the European Union and the European Atomic Energy Community, of the one part, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, of the other part (OJ 2021 L 149, p. 10).

3 The present request for a preliminary ruling has been made in the context of the same dispute in the main proceedings as that which gave rise to the judgment of 29 July 2024, Alchaster (C-202/24, EU:C:2024:649).

4 The Supreme Court (Ireland) decided to stay the proceedings and to refer the following question to the Court of Justice for a preliminary ruling:

‘Would the application, to a person convicted of an offence or offences and sentenced to a determinate sentence(s), of amended rules having the effect that he or she will have to serve at least two-thirds of such sentence and then will have only a conditional right to release on licence dependent on an assessment of dangerousness, whereas under the rules applicable at the time of the alleged offences, that person would have been automatically entitled as a matter of law to release on licence once he [or she] had served one-half of that sentence, involve the imposition of a “heavier penalty” on the convicted person than the penalty applicable at the time of the alleged offences such as to amount to a breach of Article 49(1) of the Charter?’

5 The referring court has also requested that the present case be determined pursuant to the expedited procedure provided for in Article 105 of the Rules of Procedure of the Court of Justice.

6 Under Article 105(1) of the Rules of Procedure, where the nature of a case requires that it be dealt with within a short time, the President of the Court may, at the request of the referring court or tribunal or, exceptionally, of his or her own motion, after hearing the Judge-Rapporteur and the Advocate General, decide that that case is to be determined pursuant to an expedited procedure derogating from the provisions of those rules.

7 In support of its request, the referring court states that MA is currently in custody pending a final decision on the request for surrender to the United Kingdom. In addition, the present question referred for a preliminary ruling is raised in an action brought by MA before that court, which is called upon to examine whether it is appropriate to accede to or refuse the request for his surrender.

8 In that regard, it should be noted that the question referred for a preliminary ruling by the referring court is raised in a case with regard to a person in custody, within the meaning of the fourth paragraph of Article 267 TFEU. Furthermore, the answer to that question is liable, in the light of the nature of the question and the circumstances in which it is raised, to have an effect on the continued detention of the person concerned (order of the President of the Court, 22 April 2024, Alchaster, C-202/24, EU:C:2024:343, paragraph 7).

9 In those circumstances, it must be held that the nature of the present case justifies its being dealt with within a short time in accordance with Article 105(1) of the Rules of Procedure.

10 Consequently, it is appropriate to order that Case C-743/24 be determined pursuant to the expedited procedure.

On those grounds, the President of the Court hereby orders:

Case C-743/24 shall be determined pursuant to the expedited procedure provided for in Article 105(1) of the Rules of Procedure of the Court of Justice.

[Signatures]

* Language of the case: English.

i The name of the present case is a fictitious name. It does not correspond to the real name of any party to the proceedings.