The Commission's ambition in Justice and Home Affairs 2014-19

The Juncker Commission began its mandate in 2014, less than a year before the refugee crisis in Europe took full force. Of course, this meant that the first months of this Commission were highly influenced by this context. It provided a challenge but also an opportunity to express its ambition, as the EU needed governance solutions, and it needed them fast. The Juncker Commission indeed delivered ambitious policy proposals, three of which are outlined in this chapter and analysed using the analytical framework for assessing the Commission’s ambition. The three chosen policy episodes are: the establishment of the hotspots, the European Border and Coast Guard (EBCG) and the reform of the Common European Asylum System (CEAS). The episodes in this policy area were especially useful for assessing the Commission’s ability and ambition to act politically, as the issues addressed by the policy proposals were of highest political salience in Europe in 2015. The chapter finds that the Commission acted politically and supported the enlargement of mandates of EU agencies, while it did not use the crisis to claim that more supranationalism is needed, which would be expected by those who claim the Commission to be a self-interested actor pursuing an ever-closer Union. The empirical findings suggest, first, that the Commission’s reasoning behind shifting the ambition is strategic as its finding ways to be useful and provide governance solutions in an area that seemed to have reached its limits in terms of supranationalism. Second, findings also show the limits of the Commission’s ambition to act politically, especially in the CEAS reform where several interviewees suggested that the Commission overstepped with an ambition that was not grounded in reality. An observation is put forward that a high level of Commission’s ambition can be a standalone and negative input in the EU integration process, if the goal is understood as more coordinated EU policies. And third, the Commission’s ambition has been found to be moderated along the way to a more suitable one by the Member States, even in cases when the Commission proposed enlarging the mandate of other EU institutions. This suggests that the Commission does not see the new institutions as competitors.