Einleitung Zu Beginn des 21. Jahrhunderts steht Europa innen- und außenpolitisch vor großen Herausforderungen – die Finanz- und Wirtschaftskrise, organisierte Kriminalität, illegale Migration, Terrorismus und der Klimawandel sind nur einige Beispiele, die unsere innere Sicherheit, unseren Frieden und unseren Wohlstand in Europa bedrohen. Erstmals wurden die Unmittelbarkeit und die Brutalität dieser Gefahren durch die Ereignisse des 11. September 2001 sowie die nachfolgenden Terroranschläge in Madrid und London deutlich. Konzeptionell zogen die europäischen Mitgliedstaaten bereits 2003 die Konsequenz und verabschiedeten die Europäische Sicherheitsstrategie (ESS)1, in der sie die Hauptbedrohungen für Europa identifizierten und einen sog. "erweiterten Sicherheitsbegriff" definierten: Aufgrund der neuen… Read more

Introduction EU-US counter-terrorism cooperation has been an area of EU external relations with substantial growth in the recent past. The political momentum for such cooperation was boosted post-9/11 and resulted in the conclusion of a number of international agreements between the European Union and the United States. Concluded primarily under the third pillar, these agreements have been subject to considerable criticism in Europe, both in terms of democracy and legitimacy and in terms of substance and the compatibility of their content with fundamental rights. These issues are now due to be reviewed following the entry into force of the Lisbon… Read more

Introduction The processing of personal data has become an inherent part of the daily life of Europeans, for example when booking a flight ticket, transferring money, applying for a job, or just using the Internet for private purposes. Nobody wants to miss out on the advantages of modern technologies. Sometimes individuals provide their personal data simply because they choose to do so. But sometimes data is collected without consent and often without the knowledge of the individuals concerned. The protection of personal data is becoming more and more relevant as technology develops and the possibilities increase to use and misuse… Read more

The very least that one can say or write about the cooperation in criminal matters between the EU and the US is that it has intensified since 2001. The EU and its bodies that deal with criminal matters – Eurojust and Europol – have concluded agreements with US authorities. However, the data protection provisions in several of these agreements have raised eyebrows. The exchange of personal data is a crucial tool in judicial and law enforcement cooperation in criminal matters. The EU as an entity, but also Eurojust and Europol, entered into negotiations with the US in order to regulate… Read more

Introduction The Lisbon Treaty aims at further developing an area of freedom, security and justice without internal frontiers, and the prevention and combating of crime is seen as one of the premises in order to strengthen the creation of such an area (Article 3 TEU). Member States are faced with crises of criminality in the era of globalisation: following economic and social trends, crime tends to assume a transnational dimension and a complex structure, and individual States cannot manage to deal with this phenomenon. Moreover, freedom of circulation within the EU can lead to further difficulties in fighting criminality. This… Read more

Before the entry into force of the Treaty on European Union of 1991, the cooperation in matters of internal security took place at the level of international relations between particular Member States − in the legal sense, outside the European Communities.1 The Treaty on European Union formed the architecture of European integration by attaching different forms of intergovernmental cooperation to Community policies. In this way, the three-pillar system was established. The cooperation between the EU Member States was described as “the cooperation in the fields of justice and home affairs.” This area includes police and judicial cooperation in criminal matters… Read more