The European Communities’ Pyrrhic Victory: European Integration, Terrorism, and the Dublin Agreement of 1979

This article looks at the European Communities’ efforts against terrorism in the 1970s. It argues that in spite of the high ambitions to improve European legal integration, the attempts to develop an antiterrorism agreement were quite obviously a failure. Although the Dublin Agreement was adopted in 1979 after cumbersome and lengthy negotiations, it fell short of showing the member states’ unity and resolve to fight terrorism, and it never entered into force. The tedious negotiations drained the member states’ energy and willingness to such an extent that no other steps toward judicial integration or antiterrorism treaties were taken.