Area of freedom, security and justice

The area of freedom, security and justice (AFSJ) is a collection of home affairs and justice policies designed to ensure security, rights and free movement within the European Union (EU). Areas covered include the harmonisation of private international law, extradition arrangements between member states, policies on internal and external border controls, common travel visa, immigration and asylum policies and police and judicial cooperation.

As internal borders have been removed within the EU, cross-border police cooperation has had to increase to counter cross-border crime. Some notable projects related to the area are the European Arrest Warrant, the Schengen Area and Frontex patrols.

The area comes under the purview of the European Commissioner for Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship and the European Commissioner for Home Affairs. They deal with the following matters: EU citizenship; combating discrimination, drugs, organised crime, terrorism, human trafficking; free movement of people, asylum and immigration; judicial cooperation in civil and criminal matters; police and customs cooperation; and these matters in the acceding countries.

The relevant European Commission departments are the DG for Justice and the DG Home Affairs. However, there are also Eurojust and Europol, which develop judicial and police cooperation respectively. Related to the latter there is also the European Police College, the European Police Chiefs Task Force and Frontex.

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