How will the emergency brake and enhanced cooperation work in practice?
To balance the introduction of QMV in the area of judicial cooperation in criminal matters, the Treaty introduces a procedure called the “emergency brake” to protect the interests of Member States. It allows Member States to bloc the adoption of a legislative proposal and to send it to the European Council, if they feel that the proposal has an impact on fundamental aspects of their criminal law system. In such a case, co-decision procedure is suspended. After discussion, and if there is a consensus, the European Council, within 4 months of the date procedures were suspended, sends back the proposal to the Council, which then ends the suspension of the normal legislative procedure or co-decision. If there is no consensus, within the same timeframe, a minimum of 9 Member States can proceed with enhanced cooperation on the basis of the original proposal. So does the European Court of Justice now have a role in justice, freedom and security issues? Yes. The Third pillar limited the compet
