THE EMPOWERMENT OF AFSJ AGENCIES AND THE INTEGRATION OF THE EU ADMINISTRATION

Intersecting the dynamic relation between the intergovernmental and the supranational levels, the strengthening of European Union (EU) home affairs agencies creates a new administrative and executive architecture that could -depending on their mandate and structure- forge an executive center, or, conversely, entrench proxy intergovernmental executives. Building on the hypothesis that EU agencies bear a potential to transform the EU political-administrative order (as the functioning of the political system and the traditions in discharging public policies), this paper analyses the empowerment of agencies in the EU Area of Freedom, Security and Justice (AFSJ) to the benefit of an increasingly integrated administration and a Europeanized executive. Also in response to the migrant crisis and the rise of Islamist terrorist attacks in Europe, the enhanced mandate of Frontex, Easo and Europol (yielding more policy-steering potential and new executive, monitoring and steering functions) calls for a careful analysis of the emergent executive morphology of the AFSJ. While we witness an increasing ‘Europeanization of executive powers’ in the EU interiors, the pluralization of executive fora might at the same time fragment the ownership of executive powers, raising doubts with regards the legal and democratic legitimacy of the (EU) executive decision-making.