PROGRESS AND OBSTACLES IN THE AREA OF JUSTICE AND HOME AFFAIRS IN AN ENLARGING EUROPE

Abstract

This article makes an assessment of the legislative achievements made so far of the objectives set by the Amsterdam Treaty and the Tampere European Council. A number of Justice and Home Affairs (JHA) policy areas have experienced a major degree of development or convergence more than others. Why? This is a most sensitive field of study, which has been until now guarded very much as an area primarily of national sovereignty or where sovereignty issues could be at stake. The existence of frictions and strains can be considered as the main justification for this to happen. The way in which certain frictions between member states have affected the implementation of policy as well as how these may be further exacerbated by the forthcoming enlargement will be equally analyzed. The article is divided into two main parts: the evaluation of the main progress in implementing the Tampere Scoreboard on the eve of enlargement, as well as the analysis of the reasons why some JHA policy areas have not achieved the expected level of development.

Keywords

• Immigration
• Asylum
• Judicial cooperation
• Police practices
• Corruption
• third-country nationals