Twenty Years Later: The Legacy of the Tampere Conclusions

• Author: Kimmo Nuotio
• Profession: Professor of criminal law at the University of Helsinki, Finland
• Pages: 39-49

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4. TWENTY YEARS LATER: THE

LEGACY OF THE TAMPERE

CONCLUSIONS

Kimmo Nuotio

e Tampere Summit was a milestone as was the entering into

force of the Lisbon Treaty ten years ago. It is the right time today

to reect on both what has been achieved as well as on what should

be done in the years to come.1 In fact, when we read the Tampere

conclusions today, we nd surprisingly many ideas which con-

tinue to be relevant today. Tampere not only set the AFSJ high on

the political agenda, but we nd important references to a com-

mitment to European values as well: human rights, democratic

institutions, rule of law.

e development of EU in its legal dimensions has some inter-

esting features. ere have been times of rapid development, and

preceded or followed again maybe by years of slow progress. AFSJ

has not been an exception. Oen, in order to move fast, a sense

of crises has been needed. e rst years of the new Millenium

were marked by a determination as regards AFSJ policies. e

dierence compared to the Maastricht era, when rather little was

achieved, was signicant. e ght against terrorism and the meas-

ures against organized crime, two high-prole criminal law topics,

were suddenly very much in the focus. e framework decision

1 As regards a rst such review, please refer to Frände, D., Liukkunen, U.,

Sankari, S. and E. Storskrubb (2006).

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