The European TREVI Conference in the 1970s: Transgovernmental Policy Coordination in the Area of Internal Security

Against the background of terrorist threats, but also in the light of European integra­tion objectives, the nine EC member states began during the 1970s to align policies in the area of internal security. The principal forum for this was the so-called TREVI conference - an intergovernmental form of cooperation that largely took place behind closed doors, hidden from the view of the general public. Its key objective was to provide a framework for the systematic cooperation of police forces and security agencies within the EC. The paper analyses how the early TREVI conference func­tioned. It concludes that the conference’s work was significantly shaped by trans­governmental coordination mechanisms and that ministerial and security officials gained a pronounced influence on agenda-setting and decision-making processes. This underlying momentum was particularly problematic with regard to the demo­cratic accountability of the conference.