The EU-US security and justice agenda in action

Over the last ten years, several EU-US agreements have been concluded on issues like mutual legal assistance, personal data exchanges or transfers of financial data. The trend towards increasing transatlantic integration in the security domain has seen the emergence of new policy instruments which have often been criticised for their lack of transparency and accountability. This has given rise to a serious debate concerning data protection and civil liberties. The transatlantic debate that has accompanied the development of homeland security policies in the post 9/11 context is therefore focused on the two poles of liberty and security, and how to achieve a balance between them. The tenth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington D.C. offers a good opportunity to re-examine this dichotomy. This Chaillot Paper, edited by Patryk Pawlak and with a preface by Gilles de Kerchove, examines transatlantic security cooperation in a broader context and highlights new policy avenues worth exploring. The contributions in part one of the volume focus on the extent of bilateral EU-US cooperation at various levels, while part two provides an insight into how the transatlantic security agenda is implemented beyond the Euro-Atlantic territory.