Can the EU achieve an area of freedom, security and justice?

This paper examines how the constitutional treaty might improve the EU’s ability to build the area of freedom, security and justice.

Can the EU achieve an area of freedom, security and justice?

The new draft constitutional treaty strengthens the EU’s role in justice and home affairs, but it does not make the major changes that would be necessary to achieve the EU’s overall goal for an area of freedom, security and justice. On the positive side, the draft treaty would:

• allow the Union to apply only one procedure when it makes JHA laws and policies which should make policy-making faster and more coherent;
• require the EU’s Council of Ministers to use qualified majority voting rather than unanimity when voting on most JHA legislation which should help to speed up decision-making;
• expand the role of the European Parliament in JHA law-making, which will enhance democratic scrutiny of JHA decisions;
• strengthen the legal impact of EU legislation in member-states by giving more laws direct effect;
• extend the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice to cover JHA, which would strengthen the rule of law at EU level;
• incorporate the Charter of Fundamental Rights into the new constitution and codify other rights and principles of EU law, strengthening the formal protection of citizens’ rights;
• bring the emerging European police office, called Europol, within the EU’s legal framework.

However, the treaty does not provide the EU with enough powers to achieve an area of freedom, security and justice. Europe needs to do more to address major cross-border issues such as crime and international terrorism; to regulate migration; and to reform its judiciaries to cope with the creation of an area of free movement. Individual member-states cannot tackle these problems on their own. EU leaders readily admit this, but many governments are unwilling to accept that they should pool more sovereignty at the EU level in order to address these problems.

TThis paper examines how the constitutional treaty might improve the EU’s ability to build the area of freedom, security and justice. In particular, it considers the effect of the incorporation of the Charter of Fundamental Rights into the treaty; the proposed reforms to the EU courts; the changes to the internal security powers of the EU; and proposals for the harmonisation of national criminal laws.

Read the full analysis on the

CER website.