From Cooperation to Integration – Supranational Transformation of the European Union´s Area of Freedom, Security and Justice

The Lisbon Treaty (2009) abolished the European Union’s (EU) former pillar structure.

The previously intergovernmental Area of Freedom, Security and Justice (AFSJ) has since witnessed significant institutional, legal and political developments.

These reveal an important paradox: despite high sovereignty and national identity costs for the Member States, integration in the AFSJ has steadily continued towards supranationalism, embracing new substantive areas, actors and governance methods.

Leading theories of EU integration have been unable to explain how supranational EU institutions and agencies have succeeded in pursuing comprehensive integration in this area.

In an interdisciplinary study combining law and political science, the project endeavours to resolve this paradox by analysing the extent to which the AFSJ has transformed from an intergovernmental to a supranational policy area.

The project seeks to, first, reconceptualise supranationalisation as an integration theory by highlighting the integrative force of law.

The revised theoretical framework is subsequently tested on empirical developments in three key areas of the AFSJ: (1) asylum/immigration, (2) criminal justice, and (3) policing/security.

The results of the study are expected to lead to renewed understanding of the underpinnings of European integration and provide the basis for generating new knowledge of how EU law can shape political decision-making processes and policy output at the EU level.