ABSTRACT
The Area of Freedom, Security and Justice (AFSJ) is, possibly, one of the most challenging fields of EU competences. Indeed, the integration into an AFSJ directly affects three fundamental aspects of constitutional relevance: the residual extent of national sovereignty, the monopoly of the state to maintain public order and public security, and the vertical relationship between the exercise of public authority against fundamental freedoms and civil liberties. In spite of its predominantly internal nature, the AFSJ has also been steadily growing externally (Monar 2014). The externalization of the AFSJ implies that the EU may want or need to engage with international organizations (IOs). Indeed, one should bear in mind that the EU legal order is committed to promoting multilateralism and partnership with third countries and international organizations alike (Article 21 TEU). Thus, as Cremona (2008: 9) has argued, ‘the EU’s support to multilateralism is both one of the principles of EU foreign policy, including its Security Strategy, and an avenue for advancing its AFSJ objectives’. Therefore, because the policy challenges related to the AFSJ such as transnational organized crime, refugee protection and international terrorism are of transnational origin, the only way for the EU to attain its AFSJ agenda is to engage with all of the relevant parties, including IOs.
