Justice
You can cross most of the EU without a passport or border checks.
In a Europe of open borders, more and more people live, work and do business in other EU countries. The EU wants to make life easier for them by building an EU-wide area of justice. The aim is to offer practical solutions to cross-border problems, so that citizens feel at ease when moving around the EU and businesses can make full use of the Single Market.
Guaranteeing fundamental rights
The EU is based on respect for human rights, democratic institutions and the rule of law. Its Charter of Fundamental Rights sets out all the personal, civil, political, economic and social rights EU citizens enjoy. The EU's Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) helps policymakers to pass new laws and works to raise public awareness of fundamental rights.
The EU acts on behalf of EU citizens to prevent them from being discriminated against on grounds of racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation. In the age of ubiquitous internet the EU fights for everyone's right to the protection of personal data.
Cooperation between judicial authorities
EU authorities work together to beat cross-border crime.
As people travel freely within the EU, it is important that they enjoy unrestricted access to the judicial system of the country they are in or – in the case of criminals – that they cannot avoid being tried for crimes.
Cooperation has intensified between national judicial authorities to ensure that legal decisions taken in one member country are recognised and implemented in any other. This is especially important in civil proceedings concerning divorce, child custody, maintenance claims or even bankruptcy and unpaid bills, when the individuals involved live in different countries.
To help in the fight against serious crimes such as corruption, drug trafficking and terrorism, the EU has established the European Judicial Network.
The European arrest warrant has replaced lengthy extradition procedures, so that suspected or convicted criminals who have fled abroad can be swiftly returned to the country where they were tried, or are due to be tried.
Home Affairs
Home affairs policies play a key role in ensuring that citizens may freely and securely move, live and work throughout the EU. The lack of internal border controls within the EU requires the EU to build common approaches for managing asylum and migration, for controlling external borders and for tackling challenges to internal security.
Managing asylum and immigration
As more people try to enter the EU to escape war, persecution and natural disasters, or to carve out a better future, EU countries are developing common solutions to the challenges they all face.
Common minimum standards and procedures for asylum seekers are intended to guarantee a high level of protection for those who need it, while ensuring that national asylum systems cannot be abused. For example, they determine how and where applications should be processed, the standards for receiving asylum applicants, the status of people granted asylum and the role of national authorities in meeting these responsibilities.
EU leaders are also developing a common, balanced and comprehensive EU immigration policy in order to seize the opportunities that legal immigration may bring to the European economies and societies, while tackling the challenges of irregular immigration. The aim is to take account of the priorities and needs of each EU country and encourage the integration of non-EU nationals into their host societies.
The EU is also striving to create partnerships with the countries of origin and of transit in order to better organise legal and curb irregular immigration, to improve the link between migration and development, as well as to strengthen the rule of law and promote respect for fundamental rights in these countries.
Furthermore, effective controls at all points of entry into the EU are a precondition for the freedom of movement of people in the Union. EU countries are working together to improve security through better external border controls, while making it easier for those with a right to enter the EU to do so. Operational cooperation between EU countries is managed by the EU external borders agency FRONTEX.
Addressing internal security challenges
Guaranteeing the security of its citizens is one of the EU's central priorities. Today's security challenges are growing in scale and sophistication, often reaching beyond national borders. Therefore, Home Affairs policies aim to build a safer Europe by focusing on the fight against terrorism and organised crime, particularly through measures targeting the illicit firearms trafficking, trafficking of human beings and the sexual exploitation of children.
The EU's common internal security strategy sets out to improve internal security through cooperation on law enforcement, border management, civil protection and disaster management.
The strategy includes legislation and practical ways to stop organised criminals – drug barons, human traffickers, money launderers, terrorists – from exploiting the freedoms the EU brings and to improve cooperation between national police forces, especially within the framework of the European Police Office (Europol).
