Decoupling Fundamental Rights and Security: A History of Human Mobility Rights in European Integration from 1985

This article aims to examine the origins and evolution of the dichotomy between liberty and security in the European integration process by focusing on the case of the historical construction of the EU’s Free Movement of Persons (FMP). More particularly, it will analyze instances in which fundamental freedoms and rights were detached from security policy-making priorities within a process of ever-increasing securitization of migration and asylum in the European integration process.

Indeed, we can observe a growing tension between a mindset based on the protection, guarantee, and implementation of fundamental freedoms and rights and a worldview increasingly centered on overarching notions of security, surveillance, and control. In this regard, this article aspires to clarify the impact of historical turning points defined by a “decoupling” of security perspectives and fundamental rights in EU human mobility policy-making.

This piece will particularly highlight the critical role of the European Parliament (EP), focusing on the contributions of the EP’s most progressive voices within this remit and on their determination to advance human mobility rights per se. The main analysed primary sources come from the Historical Archives of the EU in Florence, the Historical Archives of the EP in Luxembourg and the “Barbara Sloan” EU Delegation Collection in Pittsburgh. The examined sources will help us unveil diachronic ethical imperatives and overlooked positive societal impact priorities in the drafting of the EU’s FMP by looking back in order to see beyond.