Conspicuous by their absence? The member states in European Union counter-terrorism

Abstract

This article investigates member state influence on the making of EU counter-terrorism policy. Crucially, member states have not been viewed as major drivers of change in EU counter-terrorism, despite their experience of attacks, policy expertise, and the domestic salience of the issue. To address this gap, I show how member states acted as policy entrepreneurs during EU Passenger Name Records (EU-PNR), on which final agreement was reached in 2016. Specifically, I demonstrate that the UK Home Office was a prominent, long-term actor in the development of the EU’s counter-terrorism policy and worked with the Commission to build an alliance in favour of EU-PNR. However, it was only with the ‘window of opportunity’ presented by jihadi terrorist attacks between 2015 and 2016 that members of the French government were finally able to pressure critical elements of the European Parliament into agreement.