Conclusion — European Security, Terrorism and Intelligence: Assessing the Path of Development

Abstract

In 2003, the European Security Strategy (ESS) explicitly stated that the development of globalisation had led to ‘European dependence — and so vulnerability — on an interconnected infrastructure in transport, energy, information and other fields’ (European Council, 2003). This statement demonstrates that Europe is now closely economically integrated and, by implication, European Union (EU) Member States must take coordinated internal security measures commensurate with existing threats. The ESS outlined five threats that pose risks to Europe: terrorism, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, regional conflicts, state failure and organised crime. In setting out a European strategy, EU Member States recognised that there are certain shared threats that pose risks across the European continent. Consequently, as this book has charted, EU Member States have responded vigorously to a number of threats (Zwolski, 2011a,b, 2012a,b; Zwolski and Kaunert, 2011). We perceive the various security arrangements that have emerged since 2001 (in particular) to be indicative of a broader trend of ‘Europeanisation’ of internal security. The fact that EU Member States also managed to arrive at an Internal Security Strategy (ISS) in 2010 suggests, firstly, that European integration in security matters has proven beneficial to all involved and, secondly, that EU Member States share a desire to deepen their cooperation (Council of the European Union, 2010).KeywordsEuropean UnionEuropean Union Member StateEuropean ParliamentLisbon TreatySovereign Debt CrisisThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.