The Hague Programme and domestic security: Stephen Hoadley questions whether the European Council's November 2004 decision on domestic security aims and policies promotes cummunitarianism or intergovernmentalism.

• Author: Hoadley, Stephen

The Hague Programme is the latest attempt to forge a more coherent European Union. At its most ambitious, it is a blueprint for the communitarisation of the Maastricht Treaty's Third Pillar--Justice and Home Affairs. If successful, it would elevate the Third Pillar to the same status as the First Pillar, Economic and Monetary Union. The European Union would come closer to the model supranationalism to which Euro-enthusiasts aspire. The Second Pillar, Common Foreign and Security Policy, would remain the only policy sector managed by intergovernmental negotiation rather than by EU institutions. But even that pillar may be drawn into the Hague ambit.

Hague outlined

In brief, the Hague Programme is a collection of aims and policies adopted by the European Council meeting at The Hague in November 2004. It was augmented in May 2005 by an action plan and in November 2005 by a strategy for external relations. The aims and policies laid out in these three documents and affiliated directives and proposals by the European Commission, are designed to increase the coherence and strengthen the execution of governance by the European Union and its member states in the sectors of human rights, justice, and domestic security. In accordance with the Treaty of Amsterdam (1987) and the decisions of the Tampere Summit (1989), the Hague Programme endeavours to create an EU area of freedom, security, and justice.

The 2004 Hague document sets out the following objectives (format slightly altered for clarity).

The objective of The Hague Programme is to improve the common capability of the Union and its Member States

* to guarantee fundamental rights, minimum procedural safeguards and the access to justice,

* to provide protection in accordance with the Geneva convention on Refugees and other international treaties to persons in need,

* to regulate migration flows and to control the external borders of the Union,

* to fight organised and cross-border crime and repress the threat of terrorism,

* to realise the potential of Europol and Eurojust,

* to further realise the mutual recognition of judicial decisions and certifications both in civil and criminal matters, and

* to eliminate legal and judicial obstacles in litigation in civil and family matters with crossborder implications. (1)

These broad aims are given specificity in the European Commission's five-year action plan, which was adopted by the European Council in May 2005. In the action plan the Council proposes wide-ranging policies for the period 200510. (2) Ten priorities are highlighted, as follows:

* Fundamental rights and citizenship

* The fight against terrorism

* Migration management

* Internal borders, external borders and visas

* A common asylum area

* Integration of immigrants

* Privacy and security in information sharing

* The fight against organised crime

* Civil and criminal justice

* Shared responsibility for freedom, security and justice.

This action plan stands out from many EU declarations inasmuch as it specifies accomplishment of specific tasks within the five-year time-frame in order to achieve them. For example, a border support fund is to be ready by 2006, a consolidated migration information system (SIS II) is to be operational by 2007, and the European Border Management Agency (FRONTEX) is to be reviewed in late 2007. Most ambitiously, a common European asylum system is to be adopted by 2010.

External dimension

The November 2005 communication 'Strategy on the External Dimension of the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice' is the latest amplification of the Hague Programme. (3) The document sets out challenges, objectives, issues, principles, policy instruments, examples, and recommendations. The essence of the strategy is the list of eleven policy instruments at the European Union's disposal.

* Bilateral agreements with neighbouring states;

* Enlargement and pre-accession processes with aspiring member states;

* European neighbourhood policy action plans to be negotiated with selected East Europe, North African, Middle Eastern and Central Asian states;

* Co-operation through regional organisations such as the Baltic Sea Task Force and ASEM;

* Individual arrangements with distant states such as Russia, China, Australia and the United States;

* Operational co-operation by Europol, Eurojust, European Police College and the European Border Management Agency with counterpart agencies abroad;

* Institution-building and twinning between agencies of EU members states and non-member states;

* Development policy emphasising human rights and good governance in addition to poverty reduction;

* External aid programmes focusing on migration and asylum management;

* Participation in international organisations and ratification of international agreements; and

* Application of monitoring mechanisms to extra-EU governments and programmes.

The Strategy on the External Dimension appears to link internal with external security, and to oblige the Commissioners for External...