With and without supranationalisation: the post-Lisbon roles of the European Council and the Council in justice and home affairs governance

Abstract

‘Integration without supranationalisation’ is a recent phenomenon in European Union (EU) politics characterising new areas of policy activity which emerged on the EU agenda at Maastricht or beyond. Among fields like economic governance, foreign and security policy or social and employment coordination, the domain of justice and home affairs (JHA) appears to deviate from the pattern. While being a new area of EU activity which originally evolved on the basis of policy coordination arrangements, JHA has been gradually supranationalised in respect to decision-making procedures. However, given the political sensitivity of the issues it covers, JHA is far from functioning as a standard field of EU legislative decision-making, even after the Lisbon Treaty. By examining the active role of the European Council in setting the JHA agenda and the continuous centrality of the JHA Council in decision-making, this article demonstrates an important blend of supranationalisation and intergovernmentalisation in post-Lisbon JHA governance.