International organized crime operating in Western Europe: the judicial and police approach against organized crime in the European Union: Joaquín González Ibáñez

Introduction: the European integration process The existence of an open European space without borders had long been a goal of European integrationists. After the European Steel and Coal Treaty in 1950 where the pillars for peace and stability were recognized, the 1957 Treaty establishing the European Community set the goal of creating a European market within “an area without internal frontiers in which the free movement of goods, persons, services, and capital is ensured in accordance with the provisions of this treaty.”1