A Political and Economic Dictionary of Western Europe, First Edition
Justice and Home Affairs (JHA)
Justice and Home Affairs (JHA) is the area of the European Union (EU) concerned with immigration and asylum, and police and judicial co-operation. Member states were originally reluctant to co-operate on these issues affecting national sovereignty and they were not included in the Treaty of Rome. Since the 1970s member states’ co-operation in JHA issues has increased incrementally, first with the TREVI group, then the Schengen Agreement and the Treaty of Amsterdam. The effort to achieve greater JHA co-operation was triggered by the commitment to the free movement of people realized by the Single European Market in 1992, and by rising rates of immigration following the end of the Cold War.
The Treaty on European Union (TEU) introduced JHA as the third pillar of the EU. This allowed the development of JHA policy on an intergovernmental basis, meaning that member states retained the right to initiate and agree JHA policy in the Council of the European Union. The decision-making process in the JHA Council was a five-stage process at the end of which a decision had to be made unanimously.
The result of this was that, in practice, the TEU did little to advance the JHA agenda, although it did establish Europol. JHA decision-making at the time was criticized for being undemocratic and opaque as the role of other supranational institutions was minimal or non-existent. The European Commission had only limited rights to initiate policy in this area, the European Parliament (EP) had only the right to be consulted, and the European Court of Justice (ECJ) was excluded completely.
In order to advance the JHA agenda and to improve its democratic credentials, the Treaty of Amsterdam transferred much of the JHA third pillar into the European Community first pillar. It was agreed that by 2004 all JHA policy would have to be initiated by the Commission, then scrutinized by the EP using the co-decision procedure and that ECJ would also be allowed to make judgments. Issues relating to Police and Judicial Co-operation in Criminal Matters remained in the inter-governmental third pillar.
In October 1999, following the institutional changes made at Amsterdam, a European Council meeting specifically dedicated to JHA was convened in Tampere, Finland. The decision made at Tampere moved JHA policy forward, committing JHA ministers to transform the EU into an ‘area of freedom, security and justice’, set milestones for the development of common immigration and asylum policies, and establish Eurojust. Further developments in JHA policy were triggered by the terrorist attacks on the USA on 11 September 2001.
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