“Opt-in”/“Opt-out” Strategies and Their Implications on JHA Communitarisation

The project elaborated is designed to analyse if the elements that were, at first, part of the third pillar, Justice and Home Affairs, contributed to the communitarization of the EU’s decisional process considering the evolutions stipulated in the treaties, including Lisbon Treaty, about keeping and extending the „opt-in”/„opt-out” principle. In order to achieve this goal, I framed the evolution of JHA in an integration theory – neofunctionalism. Then I have analyzed three sets of arguments, each one having a corresponding counterargument, of the way how the „opt-in”/„opt-out” principle influences the communitarization of the policy, JHA. The conclusion is that this principle affects the communitarization process but, also, it is a middle way for keeping the EU united.