Legislative Update: EU Immigration and Asylum Competence and Decision-Making in the Treaty of Lisbon

Abstract

Perhaps the biggest changes that the Treaty of Lisbon would make as compared to the current Treaties affect Justice and Home Affairs (JHA) law, which concerns issues of great significance for national sovereignty and identity. Th e new Treaty would abolish the current ‘third pillar’ (policing and criminal law) and move its provisions into Title IV of Part Th ree of the current Treaty establishing the European Community (TEC),1 which presently concerns immigration, asylum and civil law. Th e European Community (EC) would be merged into the European Union (EU); consequently the TEC would be renamed the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), and the current Title IV of the TEC would be renumbered Title V. In conjunction with this change in the structure of the Treaties, the Treaty of Lisbon would make major changes to the competence and decision-making procedures regarding JHA matters. Th is paper analyses the specific changes which the Treaty would make to decision-making and competence concerning immigration and asylum law. Simultaneously changes would also be made to the jurisdiction of the Court of Justice as regards immigration and asylum law (as well as civil law), entailing the application of the Court’s normal jurisdiction in this area, which would almost certainly lead to a significant increase in the Court’s role in this area. On the other hand, for the UK, Ireland and Denmark, the effect of the various changes is limited because of their opt-outs concerning JHA law, which would in turn be altered signi ficantly by the Treaty of Lisbon. I have examined these issues in separate articles.2