ABSTRACT
The right of EU workers to live and work in the member state of their choice goes back to the Rome treaty. Personal mobility is also one of the four freedoms enshrined in single market legislation. One purpose is to ensure workers enjoy the same level of legal, civil, social and economic rights in their new host country as they did at home. For this, the EU needs to harmonise standards of justice, security and home affairs management in all member states. One of the first concerns was to ensure equality before the law, that law-breakers could not escape their home criminal justice system by slipping into a next-door member state. It is said that criminals are usually one step ahead of the law; and it is true that in the complex and interrelated areas of free movement, justice, frontier controls, immigration, asylum, cross-border crime and terror, the EU has oft-times been behind the curve.
