"As High Representative I must help ensure consistency between different areas of our Common Foreign and Security Policy, and also with other policy areas. I must also give the right impulses for the future: I intend to use fully the right of initiative conferred to the High Representative by the Treaty [of Lisbon] to make proposals in the area of Common Foreign and Security Policy. In doing so, I can maximize the synergies that arise from my two roles."
– Catherine Ashton
EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs & Security Policy/European Commission Vice President

"I am...convinced that the Lisbon Treaty is the right moment to reorient our policies in the field of Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship, and to turn them into practical results...There can be no area of justice and no mutual trust without common fundamental rights standards based on our common values."
- Viviane Reding
European Commission Vice President: Justice, Fundamental Rights & Citizenship  

"As Commissioner for Home Affairs, I will strive for a more open and secure Europe. Migration and security are on top of my priorities. Achieving a Common European Asylum and Migration System and targeting more efficiently the threats of organized crime and terrorism are essential to answer our citizens' needs and concerns. This calls for solidarity and cooperation between Member States, but also with our international partners, while ensuring full respect of fundamental rights."
- Cecilia Malmström
EU Home Affairs Commissioner

Introduction

With economic and monetary union, major elements of a shared area of prosperity and peace are already in place in Europe. Today the EU also faces the continuing challenge to ensure freedom, security and justice within the European Union and beyond. 

With the United States as a vital partner the EU Delegation in Washington strives to further strengthen the EU-US. Relationship and facilitate cooperation in key policy areas such as the fight against terrorism and transnational crime (including cyber crime), as well as border management, migration policy and fundamental rights. The Delegation maintains open lines of communication with US agencies, such as the Departments of Homeland Security, State, Justice and the Treasury, as well as relevant Congressional committees. The Delegation also promotes dialogue with and between civil societies in the EU and the United States.

Shared values and concerns in the areas of counterterrorism and transnational crime, fundamental rights, border management and migration policy have led to intensified cooperation and engagement between the EU and the US. Some examples:

Fight against Terrorism and Transnational Crime

While the EU Member States carry the primary operational responsibility for combating terrorism, the EU assists their efforts via the sharing of best practices, strengthening national and international capabilities and facilitating European cooperation through legislation, joint projects, developing collective capacities and standards, and promoting international partnerships. 

This has become increasingly important since the attacks of September 11, 2001 in the United States as well as the attacks in London, Madrid and elsewhere. Terrorism is increasingly globalized and requires a coordinated and comprehensive international response. One of the Delegation's major goals is facilitating EU-US cooperation in the global fight against terrorism. Joint efforts include extensive law enforcement and judicial cooperation, curtailing terrorist financing, and enhancing trade and transport security, while ensuring full respect for the rule of law, fundamental rights and civil liberties. 

With more than 53 million people flying between Europe and the US each year, cooperation on aviation policy and security is of the utmost importance and has been a major area of cooperation and negotiation, for example:

• The EU and the US agreed to provide US Customs and Border Protection with passenger data (known as passenger name records, or PNRs) for transatlantic flights. The US addressed EU concerns regarding data privacy and agreed that the personal information of EU citizens would be used exclusively to track terrorists and serious transnational crime and stored only for a limited period of time. Following concerns expressed by the European Parliament the EU and US are currently renegotiating the PNR agreement.
• Several failed attacks affecting air travel in 2009 and 2010 underlined the need for continuous monitoring and revision of security measures. The US, the EU and other international partners agreed to ensure similar and compatible aviation security standards concerning the screening of passengers and cargo.

The Terrorist Finance Tracking Program (TFTP) has been another major point of EU-US counterterrorism cooperation: SWIFT—a worldwide communications platform which enables banks and other financial institutions to exchange data on financial transfers —allows the United States and the EU to access financial information related  to terrorism investigations. More than 1,450 TFTP-generated leads shared by US authorities with European governments have helped investigators prevent terrorist attacks in Europe, including an Al-Qaeda plot to attack transatlantic airline flights. A new long term agreement on financial data sharing was completed in 2010 addressing security concerns and providing safeguards for data privacy. 

Cooperation on Transnational Crime and Cyber-Security

Europol is the European Law Enforcement Agency tasked to improve the effectiveness and cooperation of EU Member States in preventing and combating terrorism, drug trafficking and other forms of serious crime. As an EU agency, it facilitates the gathering and dissemination of information, as well as, the coordination of joint actions. The Europol liaison office, housed within the EU Delegation in Washington, contributes to this mission by fostering close contacts with US law enforcement agencies and police liaison officers from EU Member States. Eurojust is the corresponding EU coordination body for national prosecutors. It is composed of 27 National Members, one from each EU Member State. These are senior and experienced judges, prosecutors, or police officers of equivalent competence, who together form the College of Eurojust. Both Eurojust and Europol are based in The Hague/Netherlands.

The EU-US Mutual Legal Assistance and Extradition Treaties which entered into force in 2010, mark the growing EU-US cooperation in the field of law enforcement and have greatly improved and modernized the methods and processes of transatlantic cooperation between prosecutors and investigators, e.g. the allowance of testimony via video conferencing and the creation of joint EU-US investigative teams has greatly facilitated evidence acquisition.

Recognizing the growing challenge of cyber-security and cyber-crime, the EU and the US agreed at the 2010 EU-US Summit to establish a cyber working group to address such  issues as the protection of critical infrastructure, public-private partnerships and increasing awareness of cyber-crime.

Migration

With the advent of global terrorism, high-levels of irregular immigration can also present threats to  national security, and both the EU and the US have started to implement new strategies that provide greater knowledge of who and what is crossing their borders so that potential terrorist or other criminal threats are identified and denied entrance. Since 1999 (European Council in Tampere/Finland), the EU has been working to develop a joint migration policy with the following objectives:

• Establish a comprehensive approach that manages migratory flows balancing all relevant aspects of migration, including human rights, international development, economic and security interests.
• Assure that third-country nationals are given fair treatment and equitably integrated into their countries of residence.
• Foster strong relationships with countries of origin to support development and to diminish the socio-economic pressures that drive illegal immigration.

Though the EU does not share a border with the United States, it does share common challenges and concerns over border security and migration. Therefore an EU-US Platform for Cooperation on Migration and Refugee Issues has recently been created for government experts from both sides of the Atlantic to examine these issues. The Delegation is also promoting communication and collaboration with the US on migration questions through outreach to think tanks and civil society.

Opportunities for Intensified Cooperation

Further Facilitate Legitimate Travel:
The extension of the US Visa Waiver Program (VWP) to all EU Member States remains on the agenda. While US citizens can travel anywhere within the EU without a visa (for business or pleasure up to 90 days), the United States requires that citizens of some EU Member States acquire a visa before travelling to the US Reciprocity is an integral component of the EU's common external border and visa policy, and an established principle of international relations; therefore, completing visa reciprocity between the US and all of the EU Member States is a priority for the EU and this Delegation. Since the average EU traveler to the US spends 4000 USD for the trip, more European visitors would provide a boost for the US economy. 

Foster Legal Certainty and Trust in the Handling of Personal Data:
In view of different approaches to data privacy on both sides of the Atlantic and recurrent ad hoc negotiations to bridge these differences in concrete cases (PNR, TFTP – see above), the EU proposes to negotiate an overarching EU-US 'umbrella agreement' on data privacy for law enforcement purposes, including the fight against terrorism. Such an agreement would provide legal certainty and coherence while providing appropriate assurances for the protection of personal data in this sensitive area. It would provide a solid basis for further intensifying law enforcement cooperation across the Atlantic, both at the EU-level and bilaterally between EU Member States and the US. 

Further information on EU Justice and Home Affairs can be found at:

http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/justice/index_en.htm
http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/home-affairs/index_en.htm
http://www.consilium.europa.eu/App/newsroom/loadbook.aspx?BID=86&LANG=1&cmsid=352