Progress and obstacles in the area of justice and home affairs in an enlarging Europe

The paper assesses the legislative achievements made so far in the area of justice and home affairs in relation to the objectives set by the Amsterdam Treaty and the Tampere European Council.

Abstract

This paper assesses the legislative achievements made so far in the objectives set by the Amsterdam Treaty and the Tampere European Council. It explores why a number of Justice and Home Affairs (JHA) policy areas have experienced a greater degree of development or convergence than others. This is a most sensitive field of study that has been guarded as either an area of national sovereignty, or where sovereignty issues could be at stake. The existence of frictions and strains between member states can be considered as the main cause of differences in development. The way in which these frictions have affected the implementation of policy and how these may be further exacerbated by the forthcoming enlargement are equally analysed.

The paper is divided into two main parts:

• an evaluation of the main progress in implementing the Tampere scoreboard on the eve of enlargement;
• an analysis of the reasons why some JHA policy areas have not achieved the expected level of development.

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full studyon the CEPS website.