[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 42, Number 39 (Monday, October 2, 2006)]
[Pages 1678-1679]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Message to the Senate Transmitting the United States-European Union 
Agreement on Extradition

September 27, 2006

To the Senate of the United States:

    With a view to receiving the advice and consent of the Senate to 
ratification, I transmit herewith the Agreement on Extradition between 
the United States of America and the European Union (EU), signed on June 
25, 2003, at Washington, together with 22 bilateral instruments that 
subsequently were signed between the United States and European Union 
Member States in order to implement the Agreement with the EU, and an 
explanatory note that is an integral part of the Agreement. I also 
transmit, for the information of the Senate, the report of the 
Department of State with respect to the Agreement and bilateral 
instruments. The bilateral instruments with three EU Member States, 
Estonia, Latvia, and Malta, take the form of comprehensive new 
extradition treaties, and therefore will be submitted individually.
    A parallel agreement with the European Union on mutual legal 
assistance, together with bilateral instruments, will be transmitted to 
the Senate separately. These two agreements are the first law 
enforcement agreements concluded between the United States and the 
European Union. Together they serve to modernize and expand in important 
respects the law enforcement relationships between the United States and 
the 25 EU Member States, as well as formalize and strengthen the 
institutional framework for law enforcement relations between the United 
States and the European Union itself.
    The U.S.-EU Extradition Agreement contains several provisions that 
should improve the scope and operation of bilateral extradition treaties 
in force between the United States and each EU Member State. For 
example, it requires replacing outdated lists of extraditable offenses 
included in 10 older bilateral treaties with the modern ``dual 
criminality'' approach, thereby enabling coverage of such newer offenses 
as money laundering. Another important provision ensures that a U.S. 
extradition request is not disfavored by

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an EU Member State that receives a competing request for the person from 
another Member State pursuant to the newly created European Arrest 
Warrant. Finally, the Extradition Agreement simplifies procedural 
requirements for preparing and transmitting extradition documents, 
easing and speeding the current process.
    I recommend that the Senate give early and favorable consideration 
to the Agreement and bilateral instruments.
                                                George W. Bush
 The White House,
 September 27, 2006.

Note: This message was released by the Office of the Press Secretary on 
September 28. An original was not available for verification of the 
content of this message.