Legal & home affairs

We want an EU where citizens enjoy their fundamental rights and where the rule of law is fully respected. Our Working Group on Legal and Home Affairs is focusing on making this happen. It also deals with other major issues such as migration, civil liberties, gender equality and educational, constitutional and legal matters.

Our Group has made extraordinary progress in a number of areas, from securing our borders so Europeans continue to enjoy the four freedoms, to fighting terrorism and fraud, and increasing protection for victims. We pushed for the creation of a European Border and Coast Guard (Frontex), championed electronic checks of all citizens crossing Europe’s external borders, fought for airlines to disclose records of passengers flying into Europe, updated the continent-wide legal framework on terrorism and put an end to elaborate terrorist financing.

Today we are working towards a common European approach on immigration and asylum policy. And with economic growth requiring a legal framework that ensures effective protection of intellectual property rights online as well as offline, the protection of intellectual property rights in the digital era is also high on our agenda.