University of Zagreb
Faculty of Political Sciences
COURSE: CONSTITUTIONAL LAW OF
THE EUROPEAN UNION
TOPIC: JUSTICE AND HOME AFFAIRS
AS THE EU THIRD PILLAR
PROFESSOR: TAMARA ĆAPETA
STUDENT: MERAL TEJECI
NOVEMBER 2014
JUSTICE AND HOME AFFAIRS
 Historical aspects of the pillar
 Police and Judicial cooperation between member
states
 European Judicial Network
 Europol and Eurojust
Historical aspects
 The multilateral cooperation of the member states regarding their
homeland security, especially the police and judicial crime fighting,
started on different levels and in special subject matters on the basis of
different legal foundations and instruments.
 There was no reference to JHA in the Treaty of Rome. But the
cooperation of the member states developed on a bilateral, regional and
international level.
 More active than Community was the Council of Europe, which
addressed many issues related criminal matters and human rights,
supported international conventions on extradition and hosted
meetings with national government ministers dealing with internal
affairs to take more multinational approach to their tasks.
The first step
 In 1967 was signed the Naples Convention on cooperation
between the customs authorities of Community.
 This
convention provided for cross border
supervision of criminal suspects by national police
and customs authorities . Its key contribution was to
encourage exchanges and cooperation between national
governments.
 This convention was superseded in 1997 by the Convention
on mutual assistance and cooperation between customs
administration of EU, otherwise known as Naples II.
Next step
 In 1971 the Pompidou group , named for French President
Georges Pompidou was set up to share experiences on the
combatting of drug use and trafficking
 This was followed in 1975 by creation of the TREVI group , set up
to coordinate antiterrorist activities, expanding after 1985 to
include drug trafficking and organized crime.
 Trevi was an intergovernmental network - or forum - of
national officials from ministries of justice and the
interior outside of the European Community framework created
during the European Council Summit in Rome, 1–2 December
1975
TREVI- Terrorism, Radicalism, Extremism and
International Violence (1975)
 The creation of TREVI was prompted by several terrorist acts,
most notably
the
hostage
taking
and consequent
massacre during the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, and the
inability of Interpol at that time to effectively assist the European
countries in their combat against this terrorism.
 It ceased to exist when it was integrated in the so-called Justice
and Home Affairs (JHA) pillar of the European Union (EU) upon
into force of the Treaty of Maastricht in 1992.
 Another initiative for cooperation on JHA came from the 1985
Schengen Agreement , the implementation of which helped begin
the process of harmonizing policies on visas, illegal immigration ,
asylum, extradition, police and judicial cooperation
The Maastricht Treaty-Incorporation of JHA in the
third pillar
 Since the adoption of the Treaty of Maastricht, the EU has
been pictured as a Greek temple.
 With the Maastricht Treaty the European Union (EU)
legally comprised three pillars.
 Justice and Home Affairs pillar was established with the
Maastricht Treaty , which has at heart been an effort to
create an area of freedom, security and justice within the
EU.
European Union: three pillars
The Amsterdam Treaty and EU pillars
 Amendments by the treaty of Amsterdam and the treaty of
Nice made the additional pillars increasingly supranational.
 Most important among these were the transfer of policy on
asylum, migration and judicial co-operation in civil
matters to the Community pillar, effected by the
Amsterdam treaty.
 Thus the third pillar was renamed Police and Judicial
Co-operation in Criminal Matters, or PJCC. The
term Justice and Home Affairs was still used to cover both the
third pillar and the transferred areas.
 The three pillars functioned on the basis of different decisionmaking procedures: the Community procedure for the first pillar
and the intergovernmental procedure for the other two.
After the Lisbon Treaty
 In a speech before the Nice Conference, Joschka Fischer, then
Foreign Minister of Germany, called for a simplification of
the European Union.
 One of the core ideas was to abolish the pillar structure, and
replace it with a merged legal personality for the Union.
 This idea was included in the Treaty of Lisbon, which entered
into force on 1 December 2009
 Decisions are taken in accordance with a procedure called the
“ordinary
legislative
procedure”.
However,
the
intergovernmental method continues to apply to the Common
Foreign and Security Policy.
European Judicial Network
 The European Judicial Network (EJN) is a network of
national contact points for the facilitation of judicial cooperation in criminal matters between Member States by
improving communication between the contact points, by
organising regular meetings for the representatives of
Member States and by providing the necessary background
information.
 Founded in 1997 –
 The EJN is composed of Contact Points of the
Member States, as well as of the European Commission
and of a Secretariat based in Hague.
 National contact points are appointed by each
Member State among Central authorities in charge of
international judicial co-operation
 Is administrated by Sekretariat
EUROPOL
 Europol is the European Union’s law enforcement
agency, whose main goal is to help achieve a safer
Europe for the benefit of all EU citizens.
 Assisting the European Union’s Member States in their
fight against serious international crimes and terrorism.
 (in reality is a criminal intelligence organization like
Interpol)
The History of Europol
 TREVI Group – ideas for fighting the criminal activities
 Maastricht Treaty – harmonization of policies
 In 1993 was founded the Europol Drugs Unit (EDU), which
started operating in January 1994, had no powers of arrest,
but was mandated to assist national police forces in criminal
investigations
 On 29 October 1993, the European Council decided that
Europol should be established in The Hague.
 ‘legal capital of the world’
 Where is also located the International Court of Justice
and the International Criminal Tribunal for the former
Yugoslavia
 Convention establishing Europol
 under Article K3 of the Maastricht Treaty was agreed in
1995 and after ratification by the Member States, came
into force on 1 October 1998.
Main goals
 Europol became fully operational on 1 July 1999
 The main goals:
 To function as the principal EU support centre for
law enforcement operations
 To become the criminal information centre of the
European Union
 To develop further as an EU centre for law
enforcement expertise
Management and Control
 Europol is
overseen by a Menagement Board – with one
respresentative of each Member State
 The head of Europol is the Director, appointed by The
Council, which is also responsible for the main control and guidance
of Europol.
 The Council approves Europol’s budget (which is part of the
general budget of the EU), together with the European Parliament.
 Together with the European Parliament, adopt regulations related
to Europol’s work.
 The Europol reports to Justice and Home Affairs Council
Eurojust- The Judicial Cooperation Unit
 The idea first was discussed at European Council Meeting
in Tampere, Finland, on 15 and 16 October 1999
 On 14 December 2000, on the initiative of Portugal, France,
Sweden and Belgium, a provisional judicial
cooperation unit was formed under the name ProEurojust, operating from the Council building in
Brussels. ( started work on 1 March 2001)
Establishment of Eurojust
 Council Decision 2002/187/JHA, of the establishment of Eurojust as a
judicial coordination unit (terrorist attacs to US influenced to take
serious steps in order to prevent this actions also in Europe)
 Set up in 2002, with headquarters in The Hague to improve
investigation and and prosecutions involving two or more
member states.
 Composed of national prosecutors, magistrates, or police officers of
equivalent competence, detached from each Member State according to
their own legal systems.
 It
can stimulates and improves the coordination of
investigations and prosecutions between the competent
authorities in the Member States, but has no power for investigation
and prosecution
Competences
 Eurojust has the authority:
 To ask the national authorities to launch an
investigation or start a prosecution
 To coordinate the work of multiple national
authorities
 To set up joint investigation team
 Provide supporting information
 Eurojust has established contact points in 23 non-Member States:
Albania, Argentina, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, Egypt, the
former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Iceland, Israel, Japan, Korea,
Liechtenstein, Moldova, Mongolia, Montenegro, Norway, Russian
Federation, Serbia, Singapore, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine
and the USA.

Eurojust maintains close cooperation and cooperation agreements with other bodies such
as: European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF), the European Judicial Training Network
(EJTN), (CEPOL) European Police College, (FRONTEX) European Agency for the
Management of Operational Cooperation at the External Borders of the Member States of
the European Union.
Conclusions
 Member States
established and improved police and judicial
cooperation between each other – one of the most important results
has been the extension of the principle of mutual recognition to
judicial matters
 EU has power and competent authorities to fight criminal actions.
 Legal basis regulating the area of police and judicial cooperation are
found in legal provisions of the Lisbon Treaty (art. 65 -85)
References
 Treaty of Lisbon, Official Journal of the European Union nr.C306,
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2007, art. 65-85
McCormick John, European Union Politics, 2011, p.247-249, p.393407
Dinan Desmond, Ever Closer Union, 4th edition, 2010, p.540-542
http://europa.eu/
http://www.ejn-crimjust.europa.eu/ejn/
https://www.europol.europa.eu/
http://www.eurojust.europa.eu/Pages/home.aspx
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THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION