![Sample our Politics & International Relations journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5947/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Politics-International-Relations.jpg"})
Abstract
External action has been of growing importance for the Union's Area of Freedom, Security and Justice (AFSJ) and accounted in 2011 already for over 19 per cent of all texts adopted by the Justice and Home Affairs Council. AFSJ related external action has also added a new dimension to previously existing fields of EU external relations. This article first considers the internal and external factors which have influenced the development the external side of the AFSJ and the impact of the post-Lisbon legal and institutional framework, including the special context created by the ‘opt-outs’ and coherence problems within this framework. It then provides a survey and analysis of the main forms of EU action in this domain (strategy formulation, cooperation with third countries, capacity-building and cooperation with and within international organizations) before assessing—in the conclusions—the implications of this external dimension for both the EU and the Member States and its future developments prospects.
Notes
1 Own calculations based on annual list of JHA Council texts provided by the DG Home Affairs of the EU Council Secretariat.
2 Council of the EU, ‘External relations strategy in the field of judicial cooperation in civil matters’, Council document 6571/1/08 REV 1, 7 May 2008, 2.
3 Subsequently replaced by Council Regulation (EC) 539/2001, 15 March 2001; Official Journal of the European Union L 81, 21 March 2001.
4 From the US, Canada and Croatia. Europol fact sheet on liaison magistrates: < www.eurojust.europa.eu/coll_lmp.htm>.
5 Text of the letter: < www.statewatch.org/news/2001/nov/06Ausalet.htm>, accessed 20 April 2012.
6 Case 22/70 (AETR/ERTA) Commission vs Council [1971] ECR 263.
7 In the case of the 2007 Convention on Jurisdiction and the Recognition and Enforcement of Judgments in Civil and Commercial Matters the ECJ ruled against ‘mixity’ in favour of exclusive Community competence. Opinion 1/03 (Lugano Convention) [2006] ECR I 1145.
8 Protocols 21 and 22 to the TEU and TFEU.
9 Denmark, for instance, concluded in 2008 a bilateral visa facilitation agreement with Russia which was largely similar to the aforementioned EU–Russia agreement of 2007.
10 ‘Presidency conclusions’, European Council, 14–15 December 2005, Council document 15914/1/05 REV 1, paragraphs 8–10.
11 After the consent of the EP.
12 An example is the ‘Council conclusions on a Latin-American and Caribbean (LAC) organised crime analysis’, Council document 5070/4/10 REV, 21 May 2010.
13 An example is the ‘Action-oriented paper on strategic and concerted action to improve cooperation in combating organised crime, especially drug trafficking, originating in West Africa’, Council document 5069/3/10, 25 March 2010.
14 An example is the ‘Action-oriented paper on strategic and concerted action to improve cooperation in combating organised crime, especially drug trafficking, originating in West Africa’, Council document 5069/3/10, 25 March 2010
15 The working groups were: organized crime (CRIMORG), horizontal drugs issues (CORDROGUE), external JHA issues (JAIEX), Africa (COAFR), internal security operational cooperation (COSI) and migration (MIGR).
16 Council of the EU, fourth implementation report of the ‘Strategy for the external dimension of JHA: global freedom, security and justice’ by the Council Secretariat (JAIEX working party)—period of reference: January 2010 to June 2011, Council document 11678/11, 4 July 2011, 11–12.
17 A recent example are the proposals for external action in the April 2010 Communication on the ‘Action plan implementing the Stockholm Programme’ (COM(2010)171, 20 April 2010, 58–64).
18 A major example is the 2004 Commission proposals on making the JHA domain a priority action field in relations with the ENP countries (COM(2004)373, 16–17, 21, 23).
19 European Commission, ‘Communication on migration’, COM (2011)248, 4 May 2011.
20 European Commission, ‘The EU internal security strategy in action: five steps towards a more secure Europe’, COM (2010)673, 22 November 2010, 3.
21 ‘Ashton weicht Frage nach Migration in Tunis aus’, Focus Magazin (Munich), 14 February 2011.
22 Council of the EU, ‘Agreement between the European Union and the United States of America on the processing and transfer of financial messaging data from the European Union to the United States for the purposes of the terrorist finance tracking program’, Official Journal of the European Union L 195, 27 July 2010.
23 Council of the EU, ‘JHA external relations—trio programme’, Council document 12004/11, 4 July 2011, 2.
24 In the 2011 evaluation of the work of the senior Council committee dealing with police and judicial cooperation (CATS), it was noted that CATS meetings have been normally divided into two days, which are split between home affairs and justice delegates. While this was considered justified for a number of files, the evaluation recommended that ‘more synergy should be encouraged’, as it could ‘provide a more comprehensive picture and avoid a fragmented approach’ (Council document 13206/11, 22 July 2011, 6).
25 Council of the EU, fourth implementation report of the ‘Strategy for the external dimension of JHA: global freedom, security and justice’ by the Council Secretariat (JAIEX working party)—period of reference: January 2010 to June 2011, Council document 11678/11, 4 July 2011, 11.
26 Council of the EU, ‘A strategy for the external dimension of JHA: global freedom, security and justice’, Council document 15446/05, 6 December 2005.
27 Council of the EU, fourth implementation report of the ‘Strategy for the external dimension of JHA: global freedom, security and justice’ by the Council Secretariat (JAIEX working party), Council document 11678/11, 4 July 2011, 11–16.
28 Council of the EU, ‘JHA external relations—trio programme’, Council document 12004/11, 4 July 2011, 5–6.
29 Council of the EU, ‘Council conclusions on setting the EU's priorities for the fight against organised crime between 2011 and 2013’, Council document 11050/11, 6 June 2011, 4–5.
30 European Commission, ‘European Neighbourhood Policy strategy paper’, COM (2004)373, 12 May 2004, 16–17.
31 Council document 5069/3/10, 25 March 2010.
32 European Commission, ‘Ukraine country strategy paper 2007–2013’, 2007, 14.
33 Articles 82–91 of the Euro-Mediterranean Agreement establishing an association between the European Community and its member states and the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, Official Journal of the European Union L265, 10 October 2005.
34 European Commission, ‘EU–Russia common spaces progress report 2010 of March 2011’ (no pagination).
35 European Commission Treaties Office Database, ‘List of agreements in the fields of justice, freedom and security’, accessed 17 September 2011.
36 Council Decision 2009/430/EC (Official Journal of the European Union L 147, 10 June 2009).
37 Such as the aforementioned 2003 EU–US agreements on extradition and mutual legal assistance (both Official Journal of the European Union L181, 19 July 2003) and the EU–Japan agreement on mutual legal assistance in criminal matters (Official Journal of the European Union L39, 12 February 2010).
38 Such as the 2010 EU–US ‘Agreement on the processing and transfer of financial messaging data from the EU to the United States for the purposes of the Terrorist Finance Tracking Program’, Official Journal of the European Union L195, 27 July 2010.
39 Europol, ’International relations', < https://www.europol.europa.eu/content/page/ international-relations-31>, accessed 2 October 2011.
40 Deutscher Bundestag, ‘Drucksache’, 16/13123, 25 May 2009.
41 External AFSJ capacity-building uses a range of different EU policy and geographical budget lines such as 2011 budget items 19 02 01, 19 06 03, 19 06 01, 19 08 010 01 and 19 08 01 03 (Official Journal of the European Union L 68, 15 March 2011). These provide an overall funding framework for 2011 of over €800 million, but only part of this is specifically used for AFSJ-related capacity-building.
42 Under EuropeAid project 127452, ‘Support to improved security by provision of capacity building to the Jakarta Centre for Law Enforcement Co-operation’ (JCLEC).
43 See the Commission's ENP individual country progress reports (European Commission, SEC(2011) 637–652, 25 May 2011).
44 SEC(2011) 640, 25 May 2011, 4, 11.
45 SEC(2011) 646, 25 May 2011, 15.
46 SEC(2011) 652, 25 May 2011, 4.
47 SEC(2011) 651, 25 May 2011, 15.
48 Joined Cases C-402/05 P and C-415/05 P Kadi and Al Barakaat v Council and Commission [2008] ECR I–6351.
49 Council Decisions 2001/748/EC (Official Journal of the European Union L 280, 24 October 2001), 2004/579/EC (Official Journal of the European Union L 261, 6 August 2004), 2006/616/EC, 2006/617/EC, 2006/618/EC, 2006/619/EC (all Official Journal of the European Union L 262, 22 September 2006) and 2008/801/EC (Official Journal of the European Union L 287, 29 October 2008).
50 Council Decisions 2006/719/EC (Official Journal of the European Union L 297, 26 October 2006), 2009/397/EC (Official Journal of the European Union L 133, 29 May 2009) and 2011/220/EU (Official Journal of the European Union L 93, 7 April 2011).
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Jörg Monar
Jörg Monar is Professor and Director of European Political and Administrative Studies at the College of Europe (Bruges) and Professor of Contemporary European Studies at the Sussex European Institute, University of Sussex (Brighton). Email: [email protected]