Justice ministers from the European Union approved...

Justice ministers from the European Union approved extradition and judicial cooperation agreements with the United States designed to augment existing bilateral accords between Washington and EU member states.
The agreements were approved unanimously by officials from the 15 EU countries at a meeting in Luxembourg, paving the way for their ratification.
The sections on extradition, which had given rise to the most discussion, included an article on the death penalty, one of the most controversial aspects addressed by the accords.
The EU wanted guarantees that the death penalty would not be applied, but Washington said it could not promise anything because the individual US states had jurisdiction in that matter.
The agreement finally stipulated that the EU country receiving the extradition request could impose the condition that the death penalty would not to be applied, regardless of the sentence handed down by the court in the United States. According to the approved text, "if the country issuing the request does not accept that condition, the extradition request can be denied."