Justice and Home Affairs the Constitutional Treaty

Nikos Raptisdealt with the Justice and Home Affairs possible scenarios in the light of the changes brought by the Constitutional Treaty. He thus stressed the importance of the single operational and legal framework under which JHA would operate after the abolition of the pillar structure, as a clear converging movement towards a reinforced community method. Moreover the Constitution would have brought an expansion of JHA material aspect as the counter-terrorism fight.

But after the referendums in France and Netherlands, the scope of analysis does not stand on the grounds of an -about to enter into force- legal text. In many ways the Constitutional treaty is closely related to the path that the Community rationale has taken up until now and this is the path that is presumably to be followed with possible adjustments (we have to follow).

In this respect, Raptis indicated the importance of focusing on two institutional and normative parameters that correspond to the amendments brought by the Constitution. The first represents a stage in the overall process of European integration, a way towards a cohesively elaborated acquis and the predominance of the Community method. The second refers to an adverse structure, inferred by intergovernmental functions and derogations inside the single system. In other words, the second is a counter-movement towards the rupture of the Union’s singularity and this way towards a hidden, still on-going, existence of the pillars. Through this semi-completion of its political competence, the EU, still unidentified and distant, is supporting national security and has to pay a lot of attention to legitimate concerns about the status of the one concept, not realized in the material scope of the area: Freedom.

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