The
main purpose of this paper is to better understand the political
importance of the so-called G6 group that unites the Interior ministers
of the six biggest EU member states. Furthermore, some of the
implications of the Prüm Convention will be discussed, as the group of
Prüm signatories has been compared elsewhere to the G6. However, this
paper also hopes to contribute to the wider discussion of the
phenomenon of ‘flexible integration’ in area of Justice and Home
Affairs. Thus, after a brief historical overview of this issue, a
relatively unknown theory of flexible integration will be presented,
and briefly applied to the case of the Prüm Convention.
This will serve as a springboard to engage in a wider
theoretical and normative discussion of different kinds of groups that
cooperate on Justice and Home Affairs, while focusing in particular on
the G6. In conclusion, I will agree with other commentators on these
issues that the G6 and the Prüm Convention should be subjected to
stringent normative criticism. However, I will also argue that the G6
rather than the Prüm Convention should generate more critical
attention, and, above all, political opposition, even if the G6’s
existence may have to be accepted as an expression of the
power-political realities in an enlarged EU.
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