EU Security Governance and Financial Crimes (Special Issue Introduction)

Abstract

This special issue aims to investigate the regulatory challenges facing the EU with regard to security governance in the broad area of the fight against financial crimes and by adopting a wider outlook on how to map and understand these phenomena in their salient contexts. In recent years, security as a key word can be witnessed as increasingly penetrating policies on a national, international, and supranational level. This development is also visible in EU policies, inter alia in the EU’s policy concerning the area of freedom, security, and justice (AFSJ). Coupling the word security to the concept of governance in the somewhat thought-provoking phrase “security governance” prominently cements its position in the entirety of processes and mechanisms that steer people as well as corporations or markets.

Security in the EU internal context concerns to a great extent the fight against terrorism and its financing as well as the policing of EU borders. Security in this regard concerns the structure of EU law and how it can be justified at the macro-level. Security governance at the micro-level, though, concerns the behavior of individuals. Coercing a natural person in the right direction can—but does not need to—be done by the deterrence of punishment, for example in law. Steering corporations or markets in the right direction, however, is a particularly testing endeavor due to the different set of mechanisms and interests that are at stake when dealing with these actors.