The European Union and organised crime

Sciences politiques | 11 pages | 05-03-2006 | Format : | Note : Non noté

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Résumé

With French and Dutch voters' recent rejection of the proposed constitutional treaty for the European Union, a number of proposals in the field of Justice and Home Affairs have been watered down or considerably postponed. However, both EU leaders and the general public continue to place high expectations on this specific policy area, which has witnessed a particularly rapid development since the Treaty of Maastricht. The fight against organised crime at EU level is only one aspect among other policies, but it too has been increasingly emphasised over the past few years, even if the first European-wide initiatives against organised crime date back to the seventies.

Back in the 1970s, the Trevi Group, called after a meeting in Rome, was designed to provide a basis for greater European co-operation to combat terrorism. In an opaque and informal fashion, the Trevi strategy was concerned with the implications that the reduction in border controls between member states had for policing and national security. Then, the Trevi agenda shifted to the issues of illegal immigration, drugs, as well as serious and organised crime.

Developments were then slower, up until the period preceding the Maastricht Treaty. Then, organised crime became a growing concern among European states, which chose to launch actions against it at the European level. They thought that the European Union was the relevant level because of the perceived nature of an organised crime which was increasingly transnational. Commentators also point at the transnational challenges brought by the end of the Cold War and at the spill over effects of economic integration, which required increased co-operation in a free-trade area that potentially created more opportunities for organised crime groups. In 1991, German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, faced with concerns about the future security challenges on Germany's Eastern borders, pushed through a proposal to create a European police office. Kohl's ultimate aim was the creation of a cross-border investigative office, a proposal which proved highly contentious. During the negotiations on Europol's legal status, the stumbling blocks were the provisions concerning the organization's working terrain and scope of activity, specifically to do with the collection of personal data protection ...

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