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This book offers a comprehensive account of the creation of the European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO) and the development of a supranational criminal justice system by national and European institutional actors. It analyses the emergence of an EU authority in criminal justice, one of the last bastions of national sovereignty, over time. It explains how and why core state powers were delegated to this new European law enforcement body and how sovereignty was reconfigured in this context. The EPPO is the most recent and most consequential addition to the institutional landscape of EU criminal justice, a domain with enormous potential for further integration but which is exceptionally sensitive regarding national sovereignty, the monopoly on the legitimate use of force, and the fundamental rights and freedoms of the individual. Yet, criminal justice has been a blind spot for many EU scholars and, so far, monopolised by legal analysis. This book examines the most significant EU criminal justice actor with fresh methodological approaches: it adopts a truly interdisciplinary approach involving both legal arguments and political conflicts and tensions. The book, thus, reveals the political dimension of the domain, thereby illuminating how sovereignty is understood by national and European decision-makers today and negotiated in an intricate process of accommodating conflicting norms and interests.
List of contents
Chapter 1: Creating the EPPO: supranational criminal justice, but not yet?.- Chapter 2: The discursive construction of supranational authority.- Chapter 3: The European Commission: a discursive entrepreneur for supranational criminal justice.- Chapter 4: National governments in the Council of the EU: negotiating sovereignty.- Chapter 5: The European Parliament: running hot and cold on the EPPO?.- Chapter 6: National parliaments: blowing the whistle on subsidiarity.- Chapter 7: The EPPO: a new era of supranational criminal justice.
About the author
Laura Schmeer obtained her Ph.D. in Political and Social Sciences from Université libre de Bruxelles, Belgium, in January 2024. Her work focuses on EU institutions and decision-making, EU bodies and agencies, and the EU Justice and Home Affairs domain.
