Sarah Wolff
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780198703617
- eISBN:
- 9780191772665
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198703617.003.0006
- Subject:
- Political Science, European Union
European integration in Justice and Home Affairs (JHA) since the Maastricht Treaty is often imagined as a process of communautarization. This chapter argues that in spite of this characterization, ...
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European integration in Justice and Home Affairs (JHA) since the Maastricht Treaty is often imagined as a process of communautarization. This chapter argues that in spite of this characterization, the governance of JHA shares many features with the new intergovernmentalism. Similarities involve the leadership role of the European Council, the development of new flexible modes of governance as well as the rise of informality in co-decision. Much of what passes as closer integration in JHA is aimed at coordinating increasingly national resources around a set of elite and practitioner-driven networks. Furthermore, in spite of the increased polarization and politicization fostered by the European Parliament, the concern of JHA agencies as de novo institutions is overwhelmingly with that of ‘operationalization’, with the effect of de-politicizing issues that remain contentious at the national level.Less
European integration in Justice and Home Affairs (JHA) since the Maastricht Treaty is often imagined as a process of communautarization. This chapter argues that in spite of this characterization, the governance of JHA shares many features with the new intergovernmentalism. Similarities involve the leadership role of the European Council, the development of new flexible modes of governance as well as the rise of informality in co-decision. Much of what passes as closer integration in JHA is aimed at coordinating increasingly national resources around a set of elite and practitioner-driven networks. Furthermore, in spite of the increased polarization and politicization fostered by the European Parliament, the concern of JHA agencies as de novo institutions is overwhelmingly with that of ‘operationalization’, with the effect of de-politicizing issues that remain contentious at the national level.
