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The Justice and Home Affairs Policy Universe: Some Directions for Further Research 1 – 7 Author: Karen E. Smith DOI: 10.1080/07036330802503718 Editorial The External Dimension of Justice and Home Affairs: A Different Security Agenda for the EU? 9 – 23 Authors: Sarah Wolff;  Nicole Wichmann; Gregory Mounier DOI: 10.1080/07036330802503817 Institutional Features of the External Dimension of JHA—The Input Dimension The External Dimension of the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice: Hijacker or Hostage of Cross-pillarization? 25 – 44 Author: Patryk Pawlak DOI: 10.1080/07036330802503825 Civilian Crisis Management and the External Dimension of JHA: Inceptive, Functional and Institutional Similarities 45 – 64 Author: Gregory Mounier DOI: 10.1080/07036330802503874 Modes of Interaction with the Neighbours — The Output Dimension (1) Deconstructing the EU's Routes of Influence in Justice and Home Affairs in the Western Balkans 65 – 82 Author: Florian Trauner DOI: 10.1080/07036330802503908 The External Governance of EU Internal Security 83 – 102 Authors: Sandra Lavenex; Nicole Wichmann DOI: 10.1080/07036330802503932 Opportunities and Limits of the JHA External Dimension—The Output Dimension (2) The Externalization of JHA Policies in Georgia: Partner or Hotbed of Threats? 103 – 118 Author: Lili Di Puppo DOI: 10.1080/07036330802503965 When the EU is the 'Norm-taker': The Passenger Name Records Agreement and the EU's Internalization of US Border Security Norms 119 – 136 Author: Javier Argomaniz DOI: 10.1080/07036330802503981 The Mediterranean Dimension of EU Counter-terrorism 137 – 156 Author: Sarah Wolff DOI: 10.1080/07036330802504013

Published in: Journal of European Integration, Volume 31, Issue 1 January 2009 , pages 65 - 82

Abstract What routes of influence could the European Union use to bring the Western Balkan states closer to EU standards in Justice and Home Affairs (JHA)? The paper argues that although the mechanisms of Europeanization identified for the Central and Eastern European countries are useful for understanding the EU's external influence, they are not sufficient for fully deconstructing the avenues of external leverage. The key to understanding the Europeanization of the Western Balkans is to take policy-related conditionality into account, in addition to membership conditionality. In offering more relaxed travel conditions in exchange for the signing of an EC readmission agreement and reforming domestic JHA, the EU could counterbalance the shortcomings of the pre-accession strategy and establish an additional avenue of external leverage. The paper suggests understanding the EU's use of policy-related conditionality in the Western Balkans as exemplary for the European Neighbourhood Policy.

The UK has secured its opt-out from EU justice measures in the bloc's new Reform Treaty but with tough conditions attached. Under draft rules agreed earlier this week by EU legal experts, the UK could be excluded from EU justice laws that are already signed up to by other member states

The Commission's interim reports on the progress made by Romania and Bulgaria on judiciary reform and fighting corruption and organised crime show that both countries must seriously step up their efforts ahead of the next detailed evaluation due in mid-2008. Otherwise they could face sanctions, Brussels warned. Related:

European Union Commission: Report On Progress in Bulgaria under the Co-operation and Verification Mechanism (4 February 2008) Commission: Report On Progress in Romania under the Co-operation and Verification Mechanism (4 February 2008) Commission memo: Interim Report on Progress in Bulgaria with Judiciary Reform and the Fight against Corruption and Organised Crime (4 February 2008) [FR] [DE] Commission memo: Interim Report on Progress in Romania with Judiciary Reform and the Fight against Corruption (4 February 2008) [FR] [DE] Commission: Assessing ongoing progress by Bulgaria and Romania [FR] [DE]

The European Commission wants to strengthen Eurojust, the bloc's judicial body, giving it more powers to fight cross-border crime. It has also indicated that the idea of having a single European prosecutor should be picked up.

EU member states are still deeply divided over giving up their national veto in matters of counterterrorism and cross-border crimes, with the matter set to be discussed by EU leaders next week. Although just over half of EU justice and home affairs ministers meeting in Brussels on Monday (4 December) are against a push for scrapping the veto, Finland – the current holder of the EU presidency – will put the matter on the agenda at the 14-15 December summit.

European interior ministers have informally agreed to share personal data such as DNA as part of the fight against crime and terrorism, representing an important move in the sensitive policy area. At an informal gathering in Dresden, Germany together with the European Commission succeeded in rallying all 27 member states behind a plan to grant mutual access to vehicle registration data, DNA files and stored fingerprints.

Romania and Bulgaria will in some respects still be treated by the EU as if they were only candidate members, with the European Commission even slapping a painful "third country" status on Sofia in the area of aviation safety.

EU leaders have made no moves to ease the decision-making process in the sensitive justice and home affairs area despite the best efforts of the Finnish EU presidency and the European Commission.

The last Strasbourg plenary of the year will be one the busiest for MEPs. Parliament will vote in second-reading on a compromise between MEPs and the Council on the "REACH" chemical package. Parliament will also vote on the approval of Romanian and Bulgarian Commissioners-designate before the two countries join the EU on 1 January 2007. Belarus opposition leader Aliaksandr Milinkevich will be awarded the 2006 Sakharov Prize for "Freedom of Thought" by Parliament's President Josep Borrell.