Abstract
AbstractThe article constitutes the first comprehensive review of the EU's export of crime control policies and ‘aid to internal security’ across regions over the last 15 years. Drawing on both International Relations and criminology, it develops an analytical framework to identify the political rationalities and technologies of crime control that the EU attempts to transfer across the Eastern and Southern (extended) neighbourhoods. By scrutinising 216 projects aimed at combating transnational crime beyond Europe's borders, spanning law enforcement, border security, criminal justice, and the penitentiary sector, the empirical analysis is geared towards detecting and systematising the ways of thinking and doing crime control that the EU seeks to promote and export. Moreover, it investigates the ‘action at a distance’ whereby it does so. It is argued that in shaping third countries’ ability to criminalise, police, indict, convict, and punish, the EU is simultaneously defining its own security actorness, specifically consolidating its role as a ‘global crime fighter’.
Highlights
Two decades of EU security strategies frame transnational organised crime1 as one of the main threats to European security
The EU and its member states have been highly involved in fostering the emergence of global regimes by developing multilateral standards in international fora like the United Nations (UN), Council of Europe (CoE), Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) – often inspired by norms and principles originally developed inside the EU itself
The 2000 UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC) was to some extent modelled after the EU 1998 Joint Action;6 the 2000 UNTOC Protocol on Migrant Smuggling was proposed and drafted by Austria and Italy
Summary
Two decades of EU security strategies frame transnational organised crime as one of the main threats to European security Cooperation against this threat has propelled the growth of European criminal law, EU crime policy, and police and judicial cooperation in criminal matters.. International cooperation included operational support: suffice it to mention the portfolio of joint projects with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) expanding from US $3.6 million in 2004 to US $131 million in 2017.8 Third, and most important for this article, the EU has influenced countries in its neighbouring regions to adopt its Justice and Home Affairs (JHA) acquis and international conventions, prompted police and judicial cooperation in criminal matters, and disbursed resources in the context of programmes and initiatives for criminal justice reform, border management, technology transfer, and capacity-building of internal security and judiciary actors The 1998 EU Joint Action on organised crime is seen as the first major attempt to provide for the harmonisation of criminal law at the international level and to translate the concept of organised crime into law. Second, the EU and its member states have been highly involved in fostering the emergence of global regimes by developing multilateral standards in international fora like the United Nations (UN), Council of Europe (CoE), Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) – often inspired by norms and principles originally developed inside the EU itself. The 2000 UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC) was to some extent modelled after the EU 1998 Joint Action; the 2000 UNTOC Protocol on Migrant Smuggling was proposed and drafted by Austria and Italy. International cooperation included operational support: suffice it to mention the portfolio of joint projects with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) expanding from US $3.6 million in 2004 to US $131 million in 2017.8 Third, and most important for this article, the EU has influenced countries in its neighbouring regions to adopt its Justice and Home Affairs (JHA) acquis and international conventions, prompted police and judicial cooperation in criminal matters, and disbursed resources in the context of programmes and initiatives for criminal justice reform, border management, technology transfer, and capacity-building of internal security and judiciary actors
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