Bulletin n. 2/2016
December 2016
INDICE
  • Section A) The theory and practise of the federal states and multi-level systems of government
  • Section B) Global governance and international organizations
  • Section C) Regional integration processes
  • Section D) Federalism as a political idea
    • Jörg Monar
    Justice and Home Affairs
    in Journal of Common Market Studies , Volume 54, Issue Supplement S1 ,  2016
    In its 16 years of existence the Union’s ‘area of freedom, security and justice’ (AFSJ)has surely not seen a more challenging one than 2015. The year started with the unprec-edented Charlie Hebdo terrorist attack in Paris on freedom of expression and ended withmany questions about the effectiveness of EU counter-terrorism co-operation in theaftermath of the vicious assaults which in November left 130 people dead who had beenenjoying an unusually mild autumn evening in Paris, attacks which also justified thesteadily increasing concerns about ‘foreign fighters’ trained by the self-proclaimed‘Islamic State’ returning to Europe. Running almost in parallel with the enhancedterrorist challenges, the very foundations of the AFSJ – the openness of the EU’s inter-nal borders within the Schengen context – came under threat because of a massive surgeof refugees and migrants, mainly from Syria, which created serious domestic problemsin the primary target country Germany, and led to the temporary reintroduction ofcontrols at some Schengen borders and caused serious divisions in the EU Council.The combined pressures of the refugee crisis and terrorist challenges accounted for anunprecedented number of nine meetings of the Justice and Home Affairs (JHA) Council,a rather exceptional Joint Council meeting of the Home Affairs Ministers and theForeign Ministers in April and an informal meeting of the JHA Ministers in July.Progress was made with adoption of several legal instruments, including in the civillaw field, but at the end of the year there was still considerable uncertainty about theeffectiveness and implementation of measures taken in response to both the refugeeand terrorism challenges.
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