EU and Counter - Terrorism A Historical institutional analysis of the Counter - Terrorism measures of the EU

Abstract: The EU has during a long period of time been exposed to terrorist attacks and began institutionalizing the anti-terror cooperation between its member states in 1992 . Since the events of 9/11 the cooperation has gone through a number of changes that has affected the EU institutions. The primary aim of the study is to identify what type of institutional change the measures taken within the internal and external dimension of EU counter-terrorism policy have contributed to. The internal dimension is activities relating to the EU institutions and member states. The external dimension is activities relating to EU and third countries. In order to fulfill the aim, three central features of historical institutionalism will be used as analytical tools. These features are formative moments, self-reinforcing feedback and timing and sequencing. In order to identify what type of institutional change the measures taken within counter-terrorism have contributed to, a process-tracing methodology will be used in order to find causal mechanism characterized by the features of historical institutionalism. The result showed that a less extensive institutional change were identified and characterized by layering. Furthermore, the anti-terror cooperation will remain stable and cause institutional stabilization.