The Challenge of the Eastern Enlargement

Abstract

The quite significant extension of EU action in the fight against crime and illegal immigration after the Treaty of Amsterdam has clearly added some substance to the EU’s declared aim of establishing itself as an ‘area of security’ as a central element of the whole AFSJ treaty objective. This area — as any security zone — is to a considerable extent defined through the borderline it establishes between a secure (or to be secured) ‘inside’ and a (perceived) less secure ‘outside’. The ‘inside’ currently consists of the 15 existing EU Member States, but — with the Union’s first big enlargement to Central and Eastern Europe approaching fast — this ‘inside’ faces an extension to its current near ‘outside’ which could nearly double the number of countries making up the AFSJ within a decade.KeywordsMember StateMoney LaunderingIllegal ImmigrationOrganise CrimeInternal SecurityThese 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.