Claudio Matera

The External Dimension of the EU’s Area of Freedom, Security and Justice

This chapter examines the emergence of the external dimension of the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice.

International Organizations and the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice

The Area of Freedom, Security and Justice (AFSJ) is possibly one of the most challenging fields of EU competences. Indeed, the integration into an AFSJ directly affects three fundamental aspects of constitutional relevance: the residual extent of national sovereignty, the monopoly of the state to maintain public order and public security, and the vertical relationship between the exercise of public authority against fundamental freedoms and civil liberties. In spite of its predominantly internal nature, the AFSJ has been steadily growing externally too (Monar, 2014). The externalization of the AFSJ implies that the EU may want or need to engage with international organizations (IOs). The scope of this chapter is to provide an overview of the role that international organizations have played and can play in the development of the AFSJ. The chapter looks first into the different types of relationships between the EU and other IOs in the area of Justice and Home Affairs. It then looks at the normative principles behind the externalization of the AFSJ and what this means for EU-IO relations and concludes with some further reflections on the nature of the field and where academic research should go next.

The Influence of International Organisations on the EU’s Area of Freedom, Security and Justice: A First Inquiry

The EU’s commitments to maintain itself as an Area of Freedom, Security and Justice (AFSJ) and to global security governance place the development of EU instruments in the realm of Justice and Home Affairs at the centre of a crossroads between municipal, bilateral and multilateral norms. However, while the relationship between national and EU legislation as well as the relationship between the EU and third countries in Justice and Home Affairs matters are being thoroughly analysed, the study of the interconnections between EU law and norms stemming from multilateral fora is a relatively unexplored side of the external dimension of the AFSJ. This contribution provides a first overview of the different ways in which, as a result of its commitment to multilateralism, the EU’s AFSJ can potentially or actually be influenced by norms stemming from international organisations. This paper argues that while the EU legal order is open to external normative influences, only a couple of international organisations are currently influencing the development of the AFSJ.

The external dimensions of the EU area of freedom, security and justice. A constitutional perspective

During the past decade in particular the external relations of the EU have not just concerned the classic areas of international cooperation (‘external action’) of the EU such as trade (Article 205 TFEU), development cooperation (Article 208 TFEU) and foreign security and defence policy (Title V TEU), but have also concerned the sensitive policy terrains covered by the Area of Freedom Security and Justice (hereinafter AFSJ) inter alia related to external border controls, asylum, immigration and the prevention and combating of crime. The purpose of this dissertation was analyse the externalisation of the AFSJ from a constitutional perspective, i.e. by looking at the agreements concluded by the EU in the AFSJ domains through the lenses of the EU’s constitutional foundations. To do so, the following research question was identified: To what extent is the development of the external dimension of the European Union’s Area of Freedom, Security and Justice compatible with the constitutional foundations of the EU? The dissertation is divided in 6 parts and is structured as follows: Part One introduces the topic, research question, existing body of knowledge and methodology. Part Two analyses the legal framework of the EU’s AFSJ and EU external relations law. Parts Three discusses the notion of ‘constitutional foundations’ of the EU legal system. Parts Four, Five and Six contain the substantive analysis of the research in which the different agreements are analysed. Chapter 14 finally brings the dissertation to a close. It answers the main research question and offers some suggestions for further research on the topic of the externalization of the AFSJ.