Justice, Liberty, Security by Bernd Martenczuk

Justice, Liberty, Security by Bernd Martenczuk

The European Union is rapidly creating a European space in which citizens can live in Justice, Liberty and Security. This bold push forward in the European integration process touches on three highly sensitive societal subjects: immigration and asylum, civil law, and criminal law. At the same time, work in this area necessarily has an external dimension: we only need to think about asylum and the post September 11 fight against terrorism. Within the European Union, this dynamic development of the external side of justice and home affairs raises challenging issues: friction over the division of competences between the Union and its Member States and between EU institutions; cross-pillar coordination issues; legal and political tensions due to variable geometry' with numerous opt-ins' and opt-outs'. In addition, international cooperation brings its own problems. .]

Bernd Martenczuk is a member of the legal service of the European Commission and professor of external relations at Vrije Universiteit Brussel. Servaas van Thiel works for the EU council of Ministers, is the director of the Brussels LL.M Program, and serves as a judge in the Regional Court of Appeals.