Is the Citizen Driving the EU's Criminal Law Agenda?

Abstract

This contribution will try to investigate to what extent the constitutional changes as brought about by the Lisbon Treaty in the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice (AFSJ) – and as witnessed in the case law of the Court of Justice – have been driven by genuine concerns for the individual. In other words, this chapter explores the extent to which the individual could be said to drive the agenda in contemporary EU criminal law and policy. Of particular relevance for such an examination is the recent Stockholm Programme, which stipulates the goals to be achieved within the AFSJ, and as such is the follow-up to the previous Hague Programme. The Stockholm Programme claims to be serving and protecting the citizen as well as placing citizens at the heart of EU activities. However, if one looks more closely at this Programme, the importance of increasing the effectiveness of existing European crime policies seems to overshadow other objectives such as the protection of human rights at the EU level. The contention of this chapter is that the EU embraces a number of principles in theory that in practice may be rendered nugatory.