The role of supranational institutions
in EU Justice and Home Affairs
Funded by the
"Austrian Science Fund (FWF)"
Duration: 2011 - 2015
Project leader: Dr. Florian Trauner
Project collaborator: Dr. Ariadna Ripoll Servent (2011-2013)ABSTRACT:
The EU’s cooperation in the field of Justice and Home Affairs (JHA) concerns core functions of statehood including the safeguarding of internal security, the control of national frontiers, and access of citizens and non-citizens (in particular migrants and asylum seekers) to justice and rights. In the beginning of European cooperation, member states were reluctant to give the supranational EU institutions a bigger say. Cooperation developed in the mid-70s with the creation of a range of intergovernmental groups, which operated with a high degree of autonomy and secrecy. The Maastricht Treaty first added an intergovernmental ‘Justice and Home Affairs’ pillar to the EU’s treaty architecture, yet preserved the strict unanimity requirement and kept the supranational institutions at arm’s length. However, following a reluctant start, the policy field was transformed from a loose form of intergovernmental cooperation to a priority of the EU’s political and legislative agenda. The Treaty of Amsterdam first introduced a major shift towards communitarisation in the JHA domain by transferring the policy fields of asylum, immigration, external border controls and civil law matters to the Community first pillar under Title IV. The Treaty of Lisbon ended this institutional development by introducing the Community method in the remaining third-pillar areas (judicial cooperation in criminal matters and police cooperation).
This project investigates in a systematic, theory-informed and comprehensive manner the impact of the enhanced competences of the European Commission and the European Parliament on the dynamics of decision-making in the JHA field. The key research questions are as follows:
- Do these supranational institutions matter for JHA policy development?
- Has the change of the institutional set-up of EU justice and home affairs cooperation exerted an impact of policy development, notably with regard to the delicate balance between individual rights and security considerations?
- If this is so, how and under which conditions can the Commission and the European Parliament exert influence on policy development in the JHA field?
The project therefore aims to contribute not only to the specialised literature on EU Justice and Home Affairs but also to theoretical debates on the role of institutions in the European integration process.
PROJECT PUBLICATIONS:
Trauner, Florian/Ariadna Ripoll Servent (eds., 2015): Policy Change in the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice: how EU institutions matter. London: Routledge.
Ripoll Servent, Ariadna/Florian Trauner (2014): Do supranational EU institutions make a difference? EU asylum law before and after communitarisation. In: Journal of European Public Policy, 21 (8), 1142-1162.
Carrapico, Helena/Florian Trauner (2013): Europol and its impact on EU policy-making on organised crime: analysing governance dynamics and opportunities. In: Perspectives on European Politics and Society, 14(3), 357-371.
Trauner, Florian (2012): The European Parliament and agency control in the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice. In: West European Politics, 35(4), 784-802.
Trauner, Florian/Ariadna Ripoll Servent (2015): The analytical framework: EU institutions, policy change and the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice. In: Florian Trauner/Ariadna Ripoll Servent: Policy change in the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice: how EU institutions matter. London: Routledge, 11-32.
Trauner, Florian/Sandra Lavenex (2015): A comparative view: understanding and explaining policy change in the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice. In: Florian Trauner/Ariadna Ripoll Servent: Policy change in the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice: how EU institutions matter. London: Routledge, 219-240.
Ripoll Servent, Ariadna/Trauner Florian (2015): Asylum – limited policy change due to new norms of institutional behaviour. In: Florian Trauner/Ariadna Ripoll Servent: Policy change in the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice: how EU institutions matter, London: Routledge, 35-52.
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