EU Justice and Home Affairs and the Eastward Enlargement: The Challenge of Diversity and EU Instruments and Strategies. ZEI Discussion Papers: 2001: C 91

[From the Introduction]. The AFSJ as a special challenge for enlargement. With the entry into force of the Amsterdam Treaty on 1 May 1999 the development of EU policies in JHA was transformed into a fundamental treaty objective, Article 2 TEU providing for the maintenance and the development of the European Union as an "area of freedom, security and justice" (AFSJ). This new integration objective was at the same time strengthened by the introduction of a range of new policy objectives, the communitarisation asylum, immigration and other issues of the former "Third Pillar", the incorporation of the Schengen acquis, new and more appropriate legal instruments and improved judicial control. This, and the results of the Tampere European Council of October 1999, led to a further expansion of the scope of policy-making in justice and home affairs, with dozens of new legislative acts being adopted, a considerable number of new legislative initiatives and even the establishment of new bodies – such as the prosecution agency Eurojust and the European Police College. There is no other example in the history of EC/EU integration process of an area of previous loose intergovernmental cooperation only having made its way so quickly to the top of the Union’s political and legislative agenda