The European Union, Counter Terrorism and Police Co-Operation, 1991-2007: Unsteady Foundations? by David Brown

Author:David Brown [Brown, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: International Relations, European, Political Science, World, Terrorism, General
ISBN: 9781847792730
Google: f2S5DwAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 31244281
Publisher: Manchester University Press
Published: 2010-06-01T00:00:00+00:00

5

A question of credibility: legislation, agencies and the implementation gap

The first half of this volume has been primarily concerned with the development of process, in terms of establishing key priorities to guide and shape overall activity, both within JHA more generally and specifically in the fields of counter terrorism and police co-operation, and the nature of the threat posed from a variety of terrorist groups. While, on occasion, specific reference has been made to key outputs of such deliberations, such as the 2002 Framework Decision on Combating Terrorism – which enshrined the first agreed definition of terrorism at an EU level (considered in more depth in Chapter 3) – or the developing threat assessment reports (considered in depth in Chapter 4), there is a need to give a fuller consideration of the overall legislative output. This is important for a number of reasons. Firstly, such a record is one of the key indicators in judging the overall credibility of the European level, in terms of whether it ‘adds value’ – ‘the success of the European enterprise, and therefore its justification, depends on its ability to achieve tangible results’.1 One of the key tests, for example, of Clarke’s implementation scale refers to a range of outputs, from the dissemination of information, via the administrative and procedural, to overt and physical action, which, in this case, will refer to the work of EU agencies, such as Europol and Eurojust, in the field of counter terrorism.2 Secondly, complementing earlier analysis regarding the prioritisation of noted JHA objectives, particularly in relation to the process of enlargement, consideration of the overall legislative output, in both quantitative and qualitative terms, as appropriate, gives a further indication as to the overall state of the Third Pillar’s internal priorities. Thirdly, it is a useful means by which to consider the state of play with regard to an ever more pressing problem in the JHA field overall, namely the development of an ‘implementation gap’ between stated intentions and legislative reality. This will be done both in terms of individual legislative actions – particularly the development of the European Arrest Warrant (EAW) – and in terms of the overall picture within the Third Pillar, to assess the scale of the ‘slippage’ between declared intent and subsequent development on the ground.

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