Treaty Transmittals: Extradition and Mutual Legal Assistance with Bulgaria and Romania

On Tuesday, the President transmitted to the Senate, for its advice and consent to ratification, the Extradition Treaty between the Government of the United States of America and the Government of the Republic of Bulgaria and the Agreement on Certain Aspects of Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters between the Government of the United States of America and the Government of the Republic of Bulgaria, and the Extradition Treaty between the United States of America and Romania and the Protocol to the Treaty between the United States of America and Romania on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters. The transmittal package for the Bulgaria agreements (Treaty Doc. 110-12) is here; the transmittal package for the Romania agreements (Treaty Doc. 110-11) is here. The Bulgaria agreements were signed on September 19, 2007; the Romania agreements were signed on September 10, 2007. Both extradition treaties would replace the outdated ones (from the 1920s and supplemented in the 1930s) currently in use. The mutual legal assistance agreement would be the first with Bulgaria. All these agreements fulfill the requirements for bilateral instruments between the United States and each European Union Member State contained in the Extradition and Mutual Legal Assistance Agreements between the United States and the EU (Treaty Docs. 109-13 and 109-14), which have been pending before the Senate since September 2006. With the conclusion of these two sets of implementing agreements, the United States has completed a long and intensive series of negotiations with the twenty-seven EU Members States; the Senate can now proceed not only to a vote on the agreements transmitted this week (and related bilateral agreements transmitted previously) but also to a vote on the two overarching U.S.-EU agreements.