The relationship between security and European identity in the area of freedom, security and justice

The security dimension is of growing importance for the EU. Its multiple facets can be traced in many aspects of EU law, but one of the areas where this is particularly evident is certainly the area of freedom, security and justice (AFSJ). Through the development of its security agenda the EU aspires to become a global entrepreneur, whose values are traded across the world  and become part of a strategic move aimed at self-preservation and re-positioning in the geo-legal constellation of the new multipolar world.

This paper argues that security discourses located within a constitutional framework should be seen as linked with identity discourses, in the sense that the projection of the EU towards the outside world is parasitic on how the values that it purports to express are generated. There is therefore a constitutive relationship between security and identity which can be detected not only in issues related to competences, but also in substantive issues affecting the scope of human rights protection.

The paper will offer some examples of the external aspects of the security dimension with reference to EU legislation and case law.