The entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty poses anew the question of whether, from now on, it will be more likely for the European Union to use this mechanism, or, conversely, the new institutional, jurisdictional and decision-making framework may act as a containment of favourable trends in the development of variable integration formulas. In reality, flexible or differentiated integration instruments, within or outside of the framework of the EU, alongside strictly intergovernmental cooperation between certain EU countries, have existed since the beginning of Community integration.

Until the end of the 1990s, EU integration in the area of criminal law centred primarily around the regional deepening of traditional judicial cooperation in criminal matters and the development of law enforcement cooperation (including the setting up of Europol as a support agency). By the end of the 1990s respectively 2000s, the EU also gained (limited) supranational competence in the areas of substantive respectively procedural criminal law. Both judicial and law enforcement cooperation were furthered over the years via the principles of mutual recognition respectively availability, and through the setting up (and development) of Eurojust, the establishment of a European Public Prosecutor’s Office and the further development of Europol. After three decennia, the EU criminal law corpus is impressive – a core component of the EU’s ‘Area of Freedom, Security and Justice’, building on and adding to (both real and presumed) trust between the Member States. No time for stand-still, though. Since 2020, the European Commission has launched a tsunami of new legislative proposals, including in the sphere of EU criminal law, strongly framed in its new EU Security Union Strategy. This special issue on ‘EU criminal policy. Advances and challenges’ discusses and assesses some of the newest developments, both in an overarching fashion and in focused papers, relating to key 2022 novelties for Europol (ie the competence to conduct AI-based pre-analysis in (big) data sets, and extended cooperation with private parties), the sensitive debate since 2020 on criminalising (LGBTIQ) hate speech and hate crime at EU level, the 2022 Cybersecurity Directive, the potential of the 2020 Conditionality Regulation to address rule of law issues undermining the trustworthiness of Member States when issuing European Arrest Warrants, and concerns about free speech limitation by the 2021 Terrorist Content Online Regulation.

The Routledge Handbook of Differentiation in the European Union offers an essential collection of groundbreaking chapters reflecting on the causes and consequences of this complex phenomenon. With contributions from key experts in this subfield of European Studies, it will become a key volume used for those interested in learning the nuts and bolts of differentiation as a mechanism of (dis)integration in the European Union, especially in the light of Brexit. Organised around five key themes, it offers an authoritative "encyclopaedia" of differentiation and addresses questions such as: How can one define differentiation in the European Union in the light of the most recent events? Does differentiation create more challenges or opportunities for the European Union? Is Europe moving away from an "ever closer Union" and heading towards an "ever more differentiated Union", especially as leading political figures across Europe favour the use of differentiation to reconcile divergences between member states? This handbook is essential reading and an authoritative reference for scholars, students, researchers and practitioners involved in, and actively concerned about, research in the study of European integration. As European differentiation is multifaceted and involves a wide range of actors and policies, it will be of further interest to those working on countries and/or in policy areas where differentiation is an increasingly relevant feature. The Introduction and chapters 13, 21, 30, and 35 of this book is available for free in PDF format as Open Access from the individual product page at www.routledge.com. It has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

Candid exploration of what Europe needs to do to overcome current crises, by a leading figure in the European Union.

The Lisbon Treaty modified the legal framework of EU external action and these innovations must be applied in a period of deep economic and financial crisis interacting with other more specific crises affecting the EU's external activities. This volume investigates the recent institutional and substantive developments in EU external relations law and practice in this context of multiple crises for the EU. The economic and financial crisis has a major impact on EU external action, but other crises too affect this sensitive area of the EU's activity and the book takes them into account. For instance, there is a crisis in the relationship between EU law and international law after the ECJ judgement in the Kadi case. In addition to exploring these questions, the volume also examines questions of legitimacy in fields such as foreign investment protection and arbitration. Representing the output of a powerful research team composed of leading scholars in the field this comprehensive collection will appeal to both an expert and non-expert readership.

This book originates from the proceedings of the 10th anniversary conference of the Centre for the Law of EU External Relations (CLEER) in which renowned experts in the field took stock of recent evolutions in the law and practice of the EU’s external relations. In particular, the book addresses the question of how the evolving legal and political framework affects the nature of EU external relations law. The contributions discuss the actions (and reactions) of the EU through external action instruments in a number of substantive areas such as migration, trade, neighbouring policies, security and defence. By shedding light on the most significant developments of the past decade this edited volume attests to the ever-evolving nature of the field of EU External Relations Law. Thus, this book is essential reading for academics, practitioners and policy makers at the EU level interested in the field of EU External Relations Law. Dr. W.Th. Douma is an Independent legal expert at the European Environmental Law Consultancy and EU Legal – Centre for European and International Law, both based in The Netherlands, voluntary researcher at Ghent University in Belgium, and Senior Legal Adviser at the Dutch Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment. Prof. Dr. C. Eckes is Professor of European Law at the University of Amsterdam and director of the Amsterdam Centre for European Law and Governance, The Netherlands. Prof. Dr. P. Van Elsuwege is Professor of European Union Law at Ghent University and co-director of the Ghent European Law Institute, Belgium. Dr. E. Kassoti is Senior researcher in EU and International Law at the Asser Institute and academic co-ordinator of the Centre for the Law of EU External Relations (CLEER), The Netherlands. Prof. Dr. A. Ott is Professor of EU External Relations Law and Jean Monnet professor in EU Law at Maastricht University, The Netherlands. Prof. Dr. R.A. Wessel is Professor of European Law and Head of the European and Economic Law Department at the University of Groningen, The Netherlands.

How can the concept of abuse of European Union law – which can be defined as undesirable choice of law artificially made by a private citizen – generate so much disagreement among equally intelligent individuals? Seeking to transcend the classical debate between its supporters and adversaries, the present study submits that the concept of abuse of EU law is located on three major fault-lines of EU law, which accounts for the well-established controversies in the field. The first fault-line, which is common to all legal orders, opposes legal congruence (the tendency to yield equitable legal outcomes) to legal certainty (the tendency to yield predictable legal outcomes). Partisans of legal congruence tend to advocate the prohibition of abuses of law, whereas partisans of legal certainty tend to oppose it. The second fault-line is specific to EU law and divides two conceptions of the regulation of the internal market. If economic integration is conceived as the promotion of cross-border competition among private businesses (the paradigm of 'regulatory neutrality'), choices of law must be proscribed as abusive, for they distort business competition. But if economic integration is intended to promote competition among Member States (the paradigm of 'regulatory competition'), choices of law by EU citizens represent a desirable process of arbitrage among national laws. The third and final fault-line corresponds to the tension between two orientations of the economic constitution of the European Union, namely the fear of private power and the fear of public power. Those who fear private power most tend to endorse the prohibition of abuses of law, whereas those who fear public power most tend to reject it. Seen in this way, the concept of abuse of EU law offers a forum in which fundamental questions about the nature and function of EU law can be confronted and examined in a new light. In May 2013, the thesis that this book was based on won the First Edition of the European Law Faculties Association Award for Outstanding Doctoral Thesis.