The Organization of European Security Governance: Internal and External Security in Transition by Ursula C. Schroeder

Author:Ursula C. Schroeder [Schroeder, Ursula C.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Political Science, General
ISBN: 9781136745225
Google: HemrAgAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 17551159
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2011-03-01T00:00:00+00:00

The Commission: a late wake-up call to horizontal coordination

During the three years following the 9/11 terror attacks, the coordination of internal and external counter-terrorism policies did not feature highly on the European Commission's agenda. Not only was the Commission desperately short-staffed in the relevant DGs, it was also constrained by the near total absence of overarching political guidance in the years following 9/11. In the Commission's Secretariat-General, only one person held the portfolio for counter-terrorism. The issue clearly did not represent a policy priority for the Commission during this period (Interview, European Commission, 12 February 2004). And although the Commission initiated an attempt at horizontal inter-service coordination in the aftermath of 9/11, it proved to be short-lived. This early form of internal coordination in the Commission had been an informal meeting established immediately after 9/11, the ‘Groupe Informel de Coordination’ (GRINCO). GRINCO served mainly as a platform to exchange information about counter-terrorism activities among previously unconnected Directorates-General. It produced weekly notes on the EU's counter-terrorism efforts for internal information purposes. Outside DGs RELEX and JHA, its participants included a wide variety of other Commission DGs.10 Ending a short period of intense inter-service exchanges, the group discontinued its activities in spring 2002 (Interview, European Commission, 12 February 2004). In late 2003, the Commission's DG Justice and Home Affairs, undoubtedly the lead agency in the EU's fight against terrorism, had no inventory of actors involved in counter-terrorism and no personnel resources to coordinate with other actors. Only three dedicated members of staff worked full-time on the issue (European Commission 2004j). During the same time period, DG Relex had only one staff position entirely dedicated to the fight against terrorism (European Commission 2003f ).

Under these conditions, the coordination of domestic and external counter-terrorism policies was not a priority. An initiative of DG JHA to formalize the sporadic interactions between several Commission services in November 2003 came to nothing. Finally, a joint Relex–JHA input into the Council's follow-up to the 2003 European Security Strategy (ESS) brought the two services together at one table. The Commission's input into the implementation of the ESS's objectives in the field of terrorism was coordinated through an informal Relexled inter-service group. It first met at the end of January 2004 with the sole aim of joining up the Commission's input into the ESS follow-up exercise. Although DG JHA brought up the issue of wider policy-coordination on terrorism, lack of interest within DG Relex and the Commission's Secretariat-General prevented further coordination meetings. Nonetheless, the exercise had been the first Commission initiative attempting to join up its different strands of in-house expertise since the adjournment of the GRINCO meetings. The result was a comprehensive overview of counter-terrorism activities. Adopted a week after the March 11 attacks, the paper put forward an approach to counter-terrorism designed to strengthen both internal security while at the same time promoting security, stability and prosperity in third countries (European Commission 2004c: 2). Stressing the ‘intrinsic link between internal and external security’ (ibid.), it outlined a range

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