KEY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE EUROPEAN UNION”S JUSTICE, HOME AFFAIRS, COMMON FOREIGN AND SECURITY POLICY PRIOR TO THE THEATY OF LISBON
KEY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE EUROPEAN UNION”S JUSTICE, HOME AFFAIRS, COMMON FOREIGN AND SECURITY POLICY PRIOR TO THE THEATY OF LISBON

Summary/Abstract: At the height of the enthusiasm for European integration, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, economic integration was considered to be well advanced, while there was very little integration in the political sphere. The members of the European Union jealously guarded national competences in a number of political areas, especially in those considered to represent the core of national sovereignty – domestic and foreign policy. Hence the commitment to initiating political integration, for which, again, it was necessary to build an appropriate institutional framework. The Maastricht Treaty made an institutional breakthrough in that it divided all issues of European integration into three pillars. The first pillar included all common community policies, that is, those matters where Brussels has a strong and dominant influence. The second pillar was dedicated to foreign policy, and the third to internal policy. It was believed that this would encourage internal and external policies to develop like other common EU policies. In the meantime, a little over fifteen years have passed since Maastricht and the Lisbon Treaty (2006), and expectations have not been fully met. This was to be expected. Already when creating the three pillars, the “architects” designed the pillars differently. While within the first pillar, the main role, as a rule, is played by the common bodies of the Union, in the other two pillars everything is in the hands of national governments. There are only as many common policies as the representatives of the governments decide. That is why everything was different in the other two compared to the first pillar. National governments are the main proposers of measures, the Commission only participates as a secondary actor, while decisions are made by the Council of Ministers and they are mainly based on the consent regime.

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