Denmark and the European Area of Freedom, Security and Justice: A Scandinavian Arrangement

This short opinion paper examines Denmark's complicated relationship to the European policy Area of Freedom, Security and Justice (AFSJ). The first section looks at the AFSJ, what it is and why it could potentially be transformed from an ugly duckling to a swan. This part of the paper starts from the presumption that the AFSJ is currently going through a needed transformation in the direction of increased legitimacy in terms of extended jurisdiction of the Court of Justice and extended competences to legislate on judicial safeguards. So while still being an area characterised by its work-in-progress nature the institutional framework is slowly improving. Thereafter the paper turns to the rules governing EU differentiation by assessing the flexibility mechanisms by firstly looking at the meaning of the notion of flexibility as such. And secondly it aims to discuss what protocol nr 22 means for Denmark and the rest of the EU and to what extent it differs from the UK and Irish opt outs. Finally, the reflection piece briefly looks at the key features of Nordic criminal law cooperation and its interrelationship with the AFSJ sphere.