Area of freedom, security and justice

The area of freedom, security and justice of the European Union is a policy domain concerning home affairs and migration, justice as well as fundamental rights, developed to address the challenges posed to internal security by collateral effects of the free movement of people and goods in the absence of border controls or customs inspection throughout the Schengen Area, as well as to safeguard adherence to the common European values through ensuring that the fundamental rights of people are respected across the EU.

Scope

Over the years, the EU has developed a wide competence in the area of home affairs and migration, fundamental rights and justice. As internal borders have been removed within the EU, cross-border police cooperation has increased to counter cross-border crime. Some notable projects related to the area are the European Arrest Warrant, the Schengen Area and Frontex patrols. Fields covered include the harmonisation of private international law, extradition arrangements between member states, policies on internal and external border controls, common travel visa, immigration and asylum policies and police and judicial cooperation.

Home affairs and migration

For example, the EU operates facilities such as the Schengen Information System, the Visa Information System, the Common European Asylum System, the European Travel Information and Authorisation System, the Entry/Exit System, the Eurodac, the EUCARIS, the European Criminal Records Information System, the European Cybercrime Centre, FADO, PRADO and others.

Justice

Furthermore, the EU has legislated in areas such as extradition, family law, asylum law, and criminal justice.
The European Commission has listed seven offences that become European crimes. The seven crimes announced by the commission are counterfeiting euro notes and coins; credit card and cheque fraud; money laundering; people-trafficking; computer hacking and virus attacks; corruption in the private sector; and marine pollution. The possible future EU crimes are racial discrimination and incitement to racial hatred; organ trade; and corruption in awarding public contracts. It will also set out the level of penalty, such as length of prison sentence, that would apply to each crime.

Fundamental rights

Prohibitions against sexual and nationality discrimination have a long standing in the treaties.See Articles 157 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. In more recent years, these have been supplemented by powers to legislate against discrimination based on race, religion, disability, age, and sexual orientation. By virtue of these powers, the EU has enacted legislation on sexual discrimination in the work-place, age discrimination, and racial discrimination.

Opt-outs

Denmark and Ireland have opted out from the area of freedom, security and justice. While Ireland has opt-ins that allows it to participate in legislation on a case-by-case basis, Denmark is fully outside the area of freedom, security and justice. Denmark has nonetheless been fully implementing the Schengen acquis since 25 March 2001, but on an intergovernmental basis. Ireland has in turn opted out from the Schengen Area in order to preserve the Common Travel Area. Nevertheless, it applied to participate in the police and judicial cooperation provisions of the Schengen acquis in June 2000 and obtained approval by a Council Decision in 2002, though it has not been implemented.
Despite AFSJ opt-out, Denmark participates through various arrangements in all AFSJ decentralised agencies except CEPOL; in parallel, Ireland has arrangements to participate in all AFSJ decentralised agencies except Frontex. Under the AFSJ opt-out, Denmark and Ireland are barred from joining the European Public Prosecutor's Office, while Hungary has decided not to participate.
In the negotiations leading up to the signing to the Lisbon Treaty, Poland secured a protocol to the treaty limiting the application of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union in the country.
The United Kingdom had an opt-out like Ireland prior to its withdrawal from the EU. It applied to participate in several areas of the Schengen acquis, including the police and judicial cooperation provisions, in March 1999. Their request was approved by a Council Decision in 2000 and fully implemented by a Decision of the Council of the EU with effect from 1 January 2005.

Organisation

Legislature

The EU legislative organs dealing specifically with the AFSJ affairs are:

European Parliament
* Committees of the European Parliament
** European Parliament Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs
** European Parliament Committee on Legal Affairs
** European Parliament Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality
* Secretariat of the European Parliament
** Directorate-General for Internal Policies of the Union
** Directorate-General for Security
Council of the European Union
* Justice and Home Affairs configuration of the Council
* General Secretariat of the Council of the European Union
** Directorate-General for Justice and Home Affairs
** Directorate-General for Organisational Development and Services

Secretariats of both institutions feature also a related structure, the Legal Service.

European Commission

The area comes under the purview of the European Commissioner for Justice, the European Commissioner for Equality and the European Commissioner for Home Affairs. They deal with the following matters: EU citizenship; combating discrimination, drugs, organised crime, terrorism, human trafficking; free movement of people, asylum and immigration; judicial cooperation in civil and criminal matters; police and customs cooperation; and these matters in the acceding countries. The relevant European Commission departments are the DG Justice & Consumers and the DG Migration & Home Affairs.

EC DG

Portfolio

Name

Member state

European party

EP group

DG JUST

European Commissioner for Justice

Didier Reynders

Belgium

Agencies, decentralised and corporate bodies

As many as ten decentralised EU agencies have been incorporated under the AFSJ policy domain:

Three of the executive agencies established by the European Commission are also active in the domain:

There is also a related decentralised independent body:

European Public Prosecutor's Office

Further two related corporate body also exists:

Authority for European Political Parties and European Political Foundations
European Data Protection Board
Other institutions and bodies

Other EU institutions and bodies directly involved in the domain include:

The domain has been financed by four EU funds:

Migration & home affairs funds:
* Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund
* Internal Security Fund
* Integrated Border Management Fund
Justice & fundamental rights funds:
* Justice, Rights and Values Fund
Criticism

There has been criticism that the EU's activities have been too focused on security and not on justice. For example, the EU created the European Arrest Warrant but no common rights for defendants arrested under it.

History

Origins (TREVI – Schengen – Dublin – Maastricht)

The first steps in security and justice cooperation within the EU began in 1975 when the TREVI group was created, composed of member states' justice and home affairs ministers.
TREVI was an intergovernmental network, or forum, of national officials from ministries of justice and the interior outside the European Community framework, proposed during the European Council meeting in Rome, 1–2 December 1975. It was formalized in Luxembourg on 29 June 1976 at a meeting of the European Council's Interior Ministers. It ceased to exist when it was integrated into the so-called Justice and Home Affairs pillar of the European Union upon the entry into force of the Treaty of Maastricht in 1993.
The first TREVI meeting at the level of senior officials was held in Rome where the famous Trevi Fountain is located and the meeting was chaired by a Dutchman by the name of Jacques Fonteijn. In some French textbooks, it is noted that TREVI stands for Terrorisme, Radicalisme, Extrémisme et Violence Internationale.
The creation of TREVI was prompted by several terrorist acts, most notably the hostage taking and subsequent massacre during the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, and the inability of Interpol at that time to effectively assist the European countries in combatting terrorism. While TREVI was initially intended to coordinate effective counterterrorism responses among European governments, it slowly extended its remit to many other issues in crossborder policing between the members of the European Community. Many of the practices and a large part of the structure of the former Third Pillar traced their origins to TREVI.
The first real cooperation was the signing of the Schengen Implementing Convention in 1990 which opened up the EU's internal borders and established the Schengen Area. In parallel the Dublin Regulation furthered police cooperation.