Cooperation on Justice and Home Affairs Matters

From the Sidelines to Center Stage: Sidekick No More? The European Commission in Justice and Home Affairs

“…Preceding the Maastricht debates, during the latter half of the 1980s, there was a dramatic increase in multilateral fora that dealt with JHA matters (Collinson 1994;Uçarer 1999a;Geddes 2000). In addition, during the very period JHA cooperation was being urgently projected into multilateral fora in Europe, Europe itself was preparing for its biggest institutional shuffle since the founding of the EC.…”

“…Though the TFJHA was run by able career bureaucrats who have had considerable practical and political experience over the years, besieged by chronic manpower shortages and increasing workload, TFJHA faced the challenge of representing an institution already constrained by the factors outlined above. The outfit was clearly overworked and understaffed (Uçarer 1999a). Adding to this was the problem of turnover and continuity resulting from a mandatory return of the seconded personnel to their capitals after three years.…”

“…These developments were largely symptomatic of a broader debate in the pre-Maastricht era, one that focused on how to steer the EU into the new millennium. As has been the case during all of the instrumental turning points of European integration, there was a difference of opinion on how to do this as groups of member states continued to advance opposing views on future integration, resulting in the famous and well-documented "temple vs. tree" debate (Dinan 1999;Uçarer 1999a) . The fact that the temple eventually outdid the tree represented a lost opportunity for the Commission which, was now put in a position where it had to operate in an intergovernmental setting to which it was unaccustomed.…”