ABSTRACT
As the preceding chapters have already explicitly or implicitly confirmed, the present and future challenges for establishing an enduring Area of Freedom, Security and Justice (AFSJ) are manifold. In itself, the AFSJ venture transformed remarkably quickly from a proud ambition at the entry into force of the Treaty of Amsterdam, to a virtual reality at the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon.1 For sure, in comparison, the obstacles for attaining the desired objectives seemed much greater in the previous settings that stretched from 1993 to 2009, let alone in the even humbler arrangements that were constructed in the more distant past. With the benefit of hindsight then, it is little cause for surprise that the principled intergovernmental approach, characterised, inter alia, by executive dominance, a feeble set of policy instruments and courts largely devoid of jurisdiction, failed to deliver. With the ‘Lisbonised’ setup, however – or so it is trumpeted – the era of trials and tribulations has finally been brought to a close.2
