The politics of EU police cooperation. Toward a European FBI?

Book abstract:

This book traces the evolution of Justice and Home Affairs (JHA) in the European Union from the 1970s to 2002.

The work is organised over nine chapters. The opening chapter by way of introduction gives the background to the current state of police co-operation in the EU. Chapter two establishes a conceptual framework for the study and evaluation of the development of co-operation on JHA in terms of intergovernmentalism and supranationalism, and simultaneously explains how the shift to the latter is seen as approaching a 'federal state'. Chapter three describes the earliest foundations of European police co-operation and the steps leading to the creation of Europol. The politics of the Europol Convention and its protocols are examined in chapter four, as well as the Treaty of Amsterdam and its implications for JHA in general and Europol in particular. Chapter five deals with the Tampere European Council of 1999 and assesses its impact on efforts to create an institutional and legal infrastructure of crime-fighting in the EU during 2000, and this continuing activity in the first half of 2001 is detailed in chapter six. The EU response to 9/11 is described in chapter seven. Attention swung away from counter terrorism in 2002 and chapter eight tells of the swing towards illegal immigration and border controls whilst the EU maintained JHA momentum. The summary of all these activities is given in chapter nine which offers some signposts as to the way forward, which would seem to be continuing along the supranationalism route and the probable creation of a European FBI.

The work will interest all those engaged in law enforcement be they practitioners or theorists, policy researchers or policy makers.

John D. Occhipinti is Associate Professor of Political Science at Canisius College, Buffalo, USA.

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