The EU and Internal Security: Origins, Progress, Limits and Prospects of a Growing Role

Since the 1990s the EU has increasingly succeeded in developing a role in the internal security domain. However, this is constrained by the limitations imposed by the Member states in this regard. The provision of internal security is a core function of the state; hence, this domain remains a difficult one for EU policy-making. Since the 1990s the EU has increasingly succeeded in developing its role, having now a formal mandate and a record of progress in four main fields: information sharing, convergence of national internal security systems, facilitation of cross-border cooperation and common international action. Yet the Union’s role is constrained by the limitations the Member States have imposed on its action possibilities, a prevailing cooperative rather than integrative rationale and serious implementation deficits. The Treaty of Lisbon offers some additional potential for developing the EU’s role, but also protects the Member States’ national competences in the field, so that much will depend on the actual content of the new 2010-14 Stockholm Programme for the Area of freedom, security and justice