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Leave and Remain go head to head in EU referendum debate

Members of the 'Remain' and 'Leave' camps have clashed in the ITV Referendum Debate, with accusations of lying and scaremongering thrown back and forth ahead of the vote in two weeks time.

SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon, Angela Eagle and Amber Rudd appeared on behalf of Vote Remain. Former London Mayor Boris Johnson, Andrea Leadsom and Gisela Stuart represented Vote Leave.

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Fact check: 'EU bolsters cross-border crime prevention'

Credit: ITV

EU membership bolsters cross-border crime prevention and Europe safer on the whole, according to Angela Eagle.

The Labour MP cited the European Arrest Warrant as one such example - something Leave campaigners maintain Britain could still do outside the EU.

The European Arrest Warrant doesn’t apply to non-EU member countries, according to fact-checking organisation Full Fact.

However, other non-EU member states, such as Norway have negotiated similar arrangements (although they’re not yet in force).

Could the UK do this as well, as Mr Johnson suggests? Cambridge professor J.R. Spencer, writing for Full Fact, says that:

In principle [things like the European Arrest Warrant] could be replaced by new ‘intergovernmental’ agreements negotiated bilaterally with individual EU members. But that would be a long and complex process.

The task might be simplified if the UK could reach agreements with the EU as a whole. And there are some Council of Europe agreements, like the extradition convention, under which the UK already cooperates with non-EU states.

These could become the legal basis for doing business with the remaining EU members. But these instruments are less effective than the newer EU agreements that are replacing them.

For example, the Council of Europe Convention on Extradition, unlike the EAW, allows signed-up countries to refuse to extradite their own nationals—as some EU countries used to do and might do again.”

– Professor J. R. Spencer / Full Fact

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