News online - current lead stories
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news, analysis, documentation and archives or What's
New: which lists all new items on the website. The latest
20 lead items are listed below. New: Statewatch
Sitemap
EU: Major report
from Statewatch and the Transnational Institute:
NeoConOpticon
- The EU Security-Industrial Complex by Ben Hayes (pdf):181,487 copies
downloaded. Executive
Summary
(pdf) and NeoConOpticon
blog
UK: Black
people are 26 times more likely than whites to face stop and
search
(Observer, link). Background: Statewatch Analysis: Published
in 2005, based on 2003-2004 figures, and also on per 100,000
of the population: Stop
& search: Ethnic injustice continues unabated: "Black people
are nearly seven times and Asian people over twice as likely
to be stopped and searched as white people."
EU: European
Commission proposal on EURODAC (fingerprint database of asylum-seekers)
drops the idea of giving access to law enforcement agencies:
Amended
proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the
Council on the establishment of 'EURODAC' for the comparison
of fingerprints for the effective application of Regulation (EC)
No [
/
] [establishing the criteria and mechanisms
for determining the Member State responsible for examining an
application for international protection lodged in one of the
Member States by a third-country national or a stateless person]
(Recast version) (pdf)
UK: UPDATE: MPs
demand inquiry over flight death (Guardian, link) and Jimmy Mubenga:
Questions
raised over flight guidelines for deportations (link). Earlier report:
Security
guards accused over death of man being deported to Angola - Exclusive:
Witnesses on BA flight say Jimmy Mubenga was being heavily restrained
by guards from private security firm G4S (Guardian, link)
IRELAND-NORTHERN
IRELAND: Human Rights Commissions: Joint
Committee Meeting in Dublin calls on British and Irish Governments
to
commit to key international standards (pdf)
Council of Europe:
Human Rights Commissioner, Thomas Hammarberg: Airlines
are not immigration authorities (pdf)
UK: Campaign
Against Criminalising Communities (CAMPACC): Submission
to the Joint Committee for Human Rights on the Terrorist Asset-Freezing
etc. Bill
(pdf) and Scotland Against Criminalising Communities (SACC):
Year
10: Six Extraordinary State Powers at the Close of the First
Decade of the War on Terror Response From SACC to the Coalition
Government's Review of Counter-Terrorism and Security Powers
2010
(pdf)
EU: Article 29
Working Party on data protection Opinion
3/2010 on the principle of accountability (pdf)
UK: Gareth Peirce:
Why
I still fight for human rights' - Justice dies when the law is
co-opted for political purposes.' (Guardian, link)
Libya/Italy:
Machine
gun attack on Italian fishing boat by Libyan coast guards: what
happens during patrols against "illegal" immigration?
In the evening of 12 September 2010,
an Italian fishing boat with ten crew members on board was fired
at repeatedly with a machine gun during a lengthy chase after
it failed to stop when called upon to do so by Libyan coast guards
in international waters in the Gulf of Sirte (off the Libyan
coast).
EP-FRANCE-ROMA:
ALDE MEPs question to the European Commission: Roma
databases and discrimination in France and in the EU (pdf)
EU: Fundamental
Rights Agency reports: Police
Stops and Minorities (pdf) and Understanding and Preventing
Discriminatory Ethnic Profiling: A Guide (pdf)
UK-EU: The EU
Data Protection Directive is to be reviewed. The UK Information
Commissioner: The
Information Commissioners response to the Ministry of Justices
call for evidence on the current data protection legislative
framework
(pdf)
GREECE: Officer
guilty of boy's murder that sparked Greek riots (BBC News, link): "Witnesses
said Alexandros Grigoropoulos was shot deliberately A police
officer in Greece has been found guilty of murdering a schoolboy
during protests in 2008, in a case that sparked weeks of rioting.
A court in the town of Amfissa convicted Epaminondas Korkoneas,
38, of the culpable homicide of 15-year-old Alexandros Grigoropoulos.
He was shot dead during anti-government protests on 6 December
2008 in the Athens neighbourhood of Exarchia."
France: Unlawful
gendarmerie database on Roma people:
"A new chapter was added
to the recent controversy over France's treatment of Roma people
when lawyers Françoise Cotta and William Bourdon told
Le Monde newspaper that they had filed a lawsuit on behalf of
four associations of Roma people and travellers in Paris on 6
October 2010 concerning an unlawful database held by the gendarmerie
(police force with a military status) in Arcueil (Val-de-Marne)."
EU: Justice and
Home Affairs Council, 7-8 October, 2010, Luxembourg: Press
release
(pdf): and "B"Points
Agenda
(pdf) "A"
Points Agenda - legislative (adopted without discussion, pdf) and
"A"
Points - non-legislative (adopted without discussion, pdf)
BELGIUM: Pluto
author arrested and tortured in Belgium (pdf): "Having just entered
Belgium, some two hours earlier, she witnessed violent arrests
on the street. When Marianne began taking pictures, she was arrested.
She was taken into police custody where she was violently dragged
by her hair, chained to a radiator, hit, kicked, spat upon, called
a whore, and threatened with sexual assault by the police. She
also witnessed the torture of another prisoner also chained to
a radiator." See also: Statewatch coverage: Policing
of 'noborder camp' in Brussels violates basic civil rights
CoE: Council
of Europe: Human Rights Commissioner: Debate
urgent procedure: Recent rise in national security discourse
in Europe : The case of Roma (pdf)
EU: IRR European
News Team: The IRR publishes today a free briefing a paper from
its European Race Audit, Accelerated removals: a study of the
human cost of EU deportation policies, 2009-2010. The briefing
paper examines the 38 asylum and immigration-related deaths in
Europe over an 18-month period. Read an IRR press
release
here or the Full
report
(pdf).
EU-ACTA (Anti-Counterfeiting
Trade Agreement): Text agreed in Tokyo: Consolidated
Text: Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement: Informal Pre-decisional/Deliberative
Draft: 2 October 2010 (pdf)
EU: Justice and
Home Affairs Council, 7-8 October, 2010, Luxembourg: Background
Note
(pdf) and "B"Points
Agenda
(pdf) "A"
Points Agenda - legislative (adopted without discussion, pdf) and
"A"
Points - non-legislative (adopted without discussion, pdf)
European Parliament:
Question to Council of the European Union: U.S.
access to European police databases (pdf): "According to media articles
citing government sources in Vienna, Austria granted to the U.S.
access to certain data held in the Austrian police databases.
Previously the U.S. had threatened to exclude Austria from the
"Visa Waiver Programme" (VWP) and to re-establish the
visa requirement for Austrian citizens. In a letter, the U.S.
imposed the deadline of 31 December 2010 to reach an agreement
with the Austrian authorities on VWP and access to Austrian databases."
EU: Council
of the European Union intervenes in the France-Roma controversy
- proposing the targeting of "mobile (itinerant) criminal
groups": "itinerant"=travellers=Roma The
Council of the European Union (27 national governments) is discussing
a set of Council Conclusions to target "mobile (itinerant)
criminal groups": EU
doc no: 14277/10 (pdf). The term "itinerant"
means, in plain English, "traveller(s)" which, in the
context of the ongoing row over France's policies, is a thinly
disguised reference to Roma people. Tony Bunyan, Statewatch editor,
comments: "Instead of condemning the racism of the French
government's policy of systematically expelling Roma people the
Council is implicitly condoning them.The fundamental values in
Article 2 (TEU) are central to the future of democracy in the
EU but if there is no willingness to enforce them then they are
fatally undermined."
EU-LIBYA: EU
signs up to 'unclear' migration pact with Libya (euobserver, link):
"The European Union has cautiously agreed to allocate
50 million for projects aimed at improving Libyan treatment
of refugees, mostly coming from African conflict zones and heading
to Europe. The deal was branded as "worryingly vague"
by human rights groups, as Libya does not even recognise the
term "asylum seeker.""
EU-USA: SWIFT-TFTP
agreement: Question to European Commission on: TFTP
interim and permanent overseer (pdf): "Can the Commission indicate
the legal basis for keeping confidential the identity of the
EU public official - interim and/or permanent - overseeing the
implementation of the TFTP agreement? Is there any precedent
for such a decision or arrangement?"
EU-PNR: Council
of the European Union: EU
external strategy on Passenger Name Record (PNR) data - Handling
of draft negotiation mandates for PNR Agreements with Canada,
the United States of America and Australia (pdf). The Council is
proposing to open negotiations with the USA, Canada and Australia
at the same time. The Council says that the Commission Communication
Communication
on the global approach to transfers of Passenger Name Record
(PNR) data to third countries (COM 492, pdf) meets the European Parliament's
concerns as expressed in its Resolution on the
launch of negotiations for Passenger Name Record (PNR) agreements
with the United States, Australia and Canada (pdf)
EU: Council of
the European Union: "State of play", 27.9.10: Proposal
for a Council Framework Decision on combating the sexual abuse,
sexual exploitation of children and child-pornography, repealing
Framework Decision 2004/68/JHA - State of play and: Proposal
for a Council Framework Decision on preventing and combating
trafficking in human beings, and protecting victims, repealing
Framework Decision 2002/629/JHA (pdf) See also: State of play, May 2009:
EU
doc no: 9892/09 (pdf) and Commission
proposal (pdf)
EU: European
Journalists Warn EU Home Affairs Chief that European Data Law
Threatens Freedom (EFJ, link). See Statewatch Observatory: The
surveillance of telecommunications in the EU
Netherlands:
Analysis of a draft coalition agreement (Note: the new government
has not yet been formed): Proposals
for revision of EU migration law and international law in the
September 2010 Dutch coalition agreement (pdf) by Kees Groenendijk,
a Professor of Migration Law at Radboud University Nijmegen.
See also: New
Dutch government to rest on support of far-right (euobserver, link);
EU's
centre-right criticises new Dutch government (link): Dutch
coalition to target burqas, Muslim immigration (link)
EU-ACTA: European
Parliament Press release: MEPs call on the
Commission to present final ACTA text as soon as possible (pdf) from MEPs Stavros
Lambrinidis (Parliament VP, S&D, Greece), Francoise Castex
(S&D, France), Zuzana Roithova (EPP, Czech Republic) and
Alexander Alvaro (ALDE, Germany). See also: Joint
Statement from all the negotiating parties to ACTA (Commission Trade spokesperson,
link) and Negotiators
Get Close On ACTA, And Continue To Mislead About It (Techdirt, link)
Council of Europe:
Bureau of the European Committee on legal cooperation: Draft
Recommendation on the protection of individuals with regard to
automatic processing of personal data in the framework of profiling
and its Draft Explanatory Memorandum (pdf): "In the fight against
terrorism, the use of black lists based on statistical inferences
is bound to result in non-terrorists being prevented from boarding
a plane and offers no absolute guarantee that terrorist passengers
will be intercepted." See also: Comments
of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, Washington, DC (pdf)
European Ombudsman:
Summary (pdf) Decision: Alleged
refusal to grant access to terrorism related document (pdf): The Council of
the European Union argued, and won, this case on the basis that:
"disclosure would be detrimental to the good functioning
of EU-US relations, and it would hinder diplomatic efforts to
find constructive solutions in sensitive political areas."
BELGIUM: Policing
of 'noborder camp' in Brussels violates basic civil rights
IRELAND: Irish
Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL): Know
your rights
(link) includiing: Criminal
Justice & Garda Powers (pdf, link), Privacy (pdf, link) and European
Convention of Human Rights (pdf, link)
EU-FRANCE-ROMA:
Amnesty
slams Commission's Roma response (European Voice, link)
NETHERLANDS:
Dutch
coalition to target burqas, Muslim immigration (euobserver, link):
"Anti-Islamic politician Geert Wilders has emerged triumphant
in Dutch coalition talks, with the new government to introduce
a bill on banning the Muslim face veil and to try to halve the
number of non-Western" immigrants in the country."
EU: Parliaments
to have no say over the "harmonisation" of national
ID cards: The Council of the European Union: National ID
cards: State
of play of identity cards (EU doc no: 13152/1/10, pdf) includes
chart with further details on national ID card plans. Background
see: Statewatch Briefing: ID
Cards in the EU: Current state of play (pdf).
The Council Presidency
also proposes that as there is no legal basis to discuss "harmonisation"
under the comitology procedures (Article 6 Committee) the Lisbon
Treaty should be used to extend the scope of the existing False
Documents Working Party. So the very same day, 14 September 2010,
the Council Presidency also circulated: Presidency's
proposal regarding the activities of the Working Party on Frontiers
/ False Documents (EU doc no:13151/10, pdf), to extend the role
of the False Documents Working Party in order to combat organised
crime, "illegal" immigration and criminal activities.
The Working Party will also be producing "legislative acts"
in the "Mixed Committee" (the EU 27 member states plus
the additional Schengen members - Norway, Switzerland and Iceland).
The legal basis for this change is to be Article 77(3) of the
TFEU under Lisbon whereby the Council can adopt measures concerning:
"passports, identity cards, residence permits or any
other such document with a view to facilitating the freedom of
movement in the territory of the Member States"
Tony Bunyan,
Statewatch editor, comments: "Despite the general move
to ordinary legislature procedure (co-decision) for the adoption
of new measures jointly by the Council and the European Parliament
under the Lisbon Treaty a number of policy areas retain the old
bad system of simply "consulting" the parliament -
and Article 77(3) is one of them. The content (eg fingerprints)
and use of data collected, processed, stored and exchanged, within
the EU and outside, for passports and ID cards (citizens and
resident third-country nationals) is highly controversial. Yet
in this critical area affecting peoples' freedom and liberty
the European Parliament will simply be "consulted"
- asked for its opinion which on historical precedent will simply
be ignored and national parliaments will have no role at all."
EU: Schengen
Information System: SIS II TO HOLD 100 MILLION RECORDS:
European Commission Staff Working Paper: Report
on the global schedule and budget for the entry into operation
of the second generation Schengen Information System (SIS II) (COM 1138, pdf). Delay
after delay has put off the introduction of SIS II until 2012.
This report contains interesting information on the planned capacity
of SIS II. The original specification planned for 15 million
records rising to 23 million. However, the growth in the number
of member states and more, importantly, the "intensive use"
of the system by EU national agencies meant that by January 2010
there were already 31 million "alerts" (records). So
planned starting capacity is no 70 million records growing to
100 million.
EU-FRONTEX: Amnesty
International (AI) and European Council on Refugees and Exiles
(ECRE) : Briefing
on the Commission proposal for a Regulation amending Council
Regulation (EC) 2007/2004 establishing a European Agency for
the Management of Operational Cooperation at the External Borders
of the Member States of the European Union (FRONTEX) (pdf)
UK-EUROPEAN COMMISSION:
Commission
refers UK to Court over privacy and personal data protection (Press release, pdf)
European Parliament:
Situation
of Roma in Europe: MEPs quiz the Commission (Press release, pdf)
EU: "State
of play": Proposal
for a Directive on minimum standards for the qualification and
status of third country nationals or stateless persons as beneficiaries
of international protection and the content of the protection
granted (recast) (Latest Council position: EU doc no: 13718/10.
pdf). And see European Parliament: Draft
report
(pdf): Rapporteur: Jean Lambert MEP.
EU: European
Commission: Recommendation
amending the Recommendation establishing a common ''Practical
Handbook for Border Guards (Schengen Handbook)'' to be used by
Member States' competent authorities when carrying out the border
control of persons (C (2006) 5186 final) (COM 5559/10, pdf)
EU-ROMA: Roma
expulsions are sign of 'dangerous times' in Europe, human rights
chief says
(euobserver, link): "The French Roma crisis is a sign
of a "dangerous" drift to the right in European politics
but also an opportunity to do "something real" for
the minority, the secretary general of the Council of Europe
has said in an interview with EUobserver." See also:
EU
warns France of action over Roma (BBC News, link): "The European
Commission has told France that it faces action over its expulsion
of Roma (Gypsy) migrants if it fails to adopt EU rules on freedom
of movement by 15 October."
EU-ROMA: European
Commission: European
Commission assesses recent developments in France, discusses
overall situation of the Roma and EU law on free movement of
EU citizens
(Press release, pdf) and Fundamental Rights Agency: Addressing
the Roma issue in the EU: Background note (pdf)
Updated: EU-USA
SWIFT-TFTP AGREEMENT: MEPs demand explanation
on US plan to monitor all money transfers (euoberver, link). See
also: Money
transfers could face anti-terrorism scrutiny (Washington Post, link).
US Treasury: Financial
Crimes Enforcement Network; Notice of Proposed Rulemaking; Cross-Border
Electronic Transmittals of Funds (pdf)
EU: France and
Italy press ahead with anti-Roma policies: France:
Immigration law amendment to turn expulsion of EU nationals into
routine
"Following the controversy
that resulted from the large-scale eviction of illegal camps
and expulsion of Romanian and Bulgarian nationals from France
that have largely targeted Roma people since mid-July, the French
government is trying to press ahead with proposals to restrict
freedom of movement and facilitate expulsions." and Italy:
Interior Minister to press for punishment for EU nationals residing
illegally
EU: European
Parliament draft report to LIBE (Civil Liberties) Committee on:
Directive
on minimum standards for the qualification and status of third
country nationals or stateless persons as beneficiaries of international
protection and the content of the protection granted (Recast) (pdf) and Commission
proposal
(pdf). See also Council of the European Union's position: - Proposal
for a Directive on minimum standards for the qualification and
status of third country nationals or stateless persons as beneficiaries
of international protection and the content of the protection
granted
(June 2010, pdf) and: Council's
position July 2010 (pdf)
POLAND-CIA: Lawyers
for Rendition Victim Intervene in Polish Investigation of CIA
Black Sites
(pdf): "Filing Demands that Polish Prosecutor Investigate
al-Nashiris Illegal Transfer, Detention, and Torture on
Polish Soil"
FRONTEX-NETHERLANDS:
the Dutch position on the handling of asylum requests and the
debarkation of migrants intercepted/rescued in FRONTEX Operations.
This is clarified in a letter sent by the Dutch Minister of Justice
to the Senates Chairman: Frontex-Netherlands:
Full-text
(translation by Matteo Tondini, pdf). The Dutch position can
be summarized as follows: 1. Dutch vessels are not a part of
Dutch territory; 2. Asylum requests of migrants made on board
Dutch vessels must be assessed by a competent authority (not
by them, however, but possibly by the host nation); 3. The Netherlands
considers this as a conditio sine qua non for its participation
in FRONTEX operations at sea. See also: Migrants
at sea
(link)
UK-EU: Home Office:
Explanatory memoranda: - EU Counter-terrorism policy:
Main achievement and future challenges (pdf) - Information managements
in the area of FSJ (pdf) - Proposed Directive
on preventing and combatting trafficking human beings and protecting
victims
(pdf) - UK-opt-out
of trafficking Directive: Letter (pdf) - Minimum standards Directive (pdf)
EU: European
Parliament Studies:- Setting up a Common
European Asylum Area (pdf) and Readmission
Policy in the European Union (pdf)
France/EU - Roma: Circulars
about operations to evict illegal camps with full-texts of the three circulars
EU COUNCIL MEETING
in Brussels (27 governments): Sarkozy
denounces EU commissioner's Roma remarks (BBC News, link). Background:
Commissioner Reding speech: Statement on the
latest developments on the Roma situation (pdf) and internal Commission
document: The
situation of Roma in France and Europe: Joint Information Note
from European Commission
(pdf) And: The
European Parlianment passed a Resolution by 337 votes to 245
calling on France to 'immediately suspend all expulsions of Roma',
saying that they 'amounted to discrimination': Full-text
of Resolution
(pdf)
EU: Commission
meeting on body scanners at airports: 2nd
Meeting of Commission Task Force on Security Scanners Tuesday
14th September 2010 (pdf) and List
of participants (pdf)
EU-Commission:
Commissioner Reding speech: Statement on the
latest developments on the Roma situation (pdf): ""Over
the past weeks, the European Commission has been following very
closely the developments in France regarding the Roma. I personally
have been appalled by a situation which gave the impression that
people are being removed from a Member State of the European
Union just because they belong to a certain ethnic minority.
This is a situation I had thought Europe would not have to witness
again after the Second World War." and EU
set to take France to court over Roma policy (euobserver, link) and
CoE: Human
Rights Commissioner: Do not stigmatise Roma (link)
EU-Roma: The
situation of Roma in France and Europe: Joint Information Note
from European Commission (pdf, dated 1 September 2010).
See also: Scapegoating
and bigotry - Strategy needed to end Europe's Roma shame
(GUE/NGL press release, link) and Barroso
makes veiled criticism of French anti-Gypsy campaign
(Guardian, link).
- Full
contents of Statewatch News online with news, analysis
and documentation
- In the News carries
link to news coverage from across the EU
- What's New covers all new
items on the website
Top reports 2004-2010
See: Tony Bunyan's column in
the Guardian: View
from the EU
UK: Statewatch
Analysis: Rolling
back the authoritarian state? An analysis of the coalition governments
commitment to civil liberties (pdf) by Max Rowlands
Statewatch analysis:
Intensive
surveillance of violent radicalisation extended to
embrace suspected radicals from across the political
spectrum: Targets include: Extreme right/left, Islamist,
nationalist, anti-globalisation etc (pdf) by Tony Bunyan.
EU: Statewatch
Analysis: The
proposed European Investigation Order: Assault on human rights
and national sovereignty (pdf) by Steve Peers, Professor of Law,
University of Essex: "the combined abolition of dual
criminality and territoriality requirements represents both a
fundamental threat to the rule of law in criminal law
matters which is required by Article 7 ECHR (legal certainty
of criminal offences) and Article 8 ECHR in this field (invasions
of privacy must be in accordance with the law) and an
attack on the national sovereignty of Member States, which
would in effect lose their power to define what acts are in fact
criminal if committed on the territory of their State."
European Commission:
Stockholm Programme: Statewatch Analysis: Action
Plan on the Stockholm Programme: A bit more freedom and justice
and a lot more security (pdf) by Tony Bunyan
Statewatch Analysis:
The
right to protest: Troublemakers and travelling
violent offenders [undefined] to be recorded on database and
targeted
by Tony Bunyan: "Since the onset of the EUs response
to the war on terrorism the prime targets have been
Muslim and migrant communities together with refugees and asylum-seekers.
Now there is an emerging picture across the EU that demonstrations
and the democratic right to protest are among the next to be
targeted to enforce internal security.
Statewatch Analysis:
EU
proposals to increase the financial transparency of charities
and non-profit organisations by Ben Hayes: "The Financial
Action Task Force (FATF) has strongly promoted the thesis that
terrorist organisations use laundered money for their activities,
and that charities are a potential conduit for terrorist organisations."
SPECIAL STATEWATCH
REPORT: The
Shape of Things to Come - the EU Future Group (Version.1.3) by Tony
Bunyan: 61,036 copies downloaded. The report calls for
a meaningful and wide-ranging debate before it is
too late for privacy and civil liberties. The proposals
set out by the shadowy "Future Group" set up by the
Council of the European Union include a range of highly controversial
measures including new technologies of surveillance, enhanced
cooperation with the United States and harnessing the "digital
tsunami". In the words of the EU Council presidency: "Every
object the individual uses, every transaction they make and almost
everywhere they go will create a detailed digital record. This
will generate a wealth of information for public security organisations,
and create huge opportunities for more effective and productive
public security efforts." This major new report The
Shape of Things to come (60 pages) examines the proposals of
the Future Group and their effect on civil liberties. It shows
how European governments and EU policy-makers are pursuing unfettered
powers to access and gather masses of personal data on the everyday
life of everyone on the grounds that we can all be safe
and secure from perceived threats. The Statewatch
report calls for a meaningful and wide-ranging debate
before it is too late for privacy and civil liberties.
See also ongoing: Statewatch Observatory: The Stockhom
Programme
Statewatch publication:
Border
wars and asylum crimes by Frances Webber (38 pages, pdf - 4.685 copies
downloaded: "When the pamphlet Crimes of Arrival
was written, in 1995, the title was a metaphor for the way the
British government, in common with other European governments,
treated migrants and especially, asylum seekers. Now, a decade
on, that title describes a literal truth.... There is a frightening
continuity between the treatment of asylum claimants and that
of terrorist suspects. In the name of the defence of our way
of life and our enlightenment values from attack by terrorists
or by poor migrants, that way of life is being destroyed by creeping
authoritarianism, and those values amongst which the most
important is the universality of human rights betrayed."
See also: Crimes
of arrival: immigrants and asylum-seekers in the new Europe (12 pages, 1995, pdf).
To order hard-copy see: Statewatch Publications
EU: The dream of total data collection by Heiner Busch. Status
quo and future plans for EU information systems
Terrorist
lists" still above the law by Ben Hayes
EU:
Secret trilogues and the democratic deficit by Tony Bunyan
EU:
Returns Directive: "Against the Outrageous Directive" speech given by Yasha
Maccanico in EP
Cementing
the European state by Tony Bunyan, New emphasis on internal security
and operational cooperation at EU level
EU-SIS Schengen Infornation
System Article 99 report by Ben Hayes
Policing
protests in Switzerland, Italy and Germany
The
surveillance of travel in the EU where everyone is a suspect by Tony Bunyan
EU: Statewatch
Report: Arming
Big Brother: new research reveals the true costs of Europe's
security-industrial complex by Ben Hayes (pdf, April 2006). The
European Union is preparing to spend hundreds of million on new
research into surveillance and control technologies, according
to Arming Big Brother, a new report by the Transnational Institute
(TNI) and Statewatch. Press
release
(English) Press
release
(Spanish, link) Copy
of full report (English, pdf) Copy
of full report (Spanish, pdf) Hard copies of Arming Big Brother
can be obtained from: The Transnational Institute, please send
an e-mail to: wilbert@tni.org with your request.
EU: "Unaccountable
Europe" by Tony Bunyan (Statewatch editor) in Special
issue of Index on Censorship: "Big Brother Goes Global"
(December 2005)
Europe: Launch
of the European Civil Liberties Network (link) - The ECLN was launched on 19
October 2005 as a long-term project to develop a platform for
groups working on civil liberties issues across Europe. A collection
of "Essays
in defence of civil liberties and democracy" was published
to mark the launch the ECLN
Global surveillance:
Global
coalition launch report and international surveillance campaign: Statewatch, with partner
organisations the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Focus
on the Global South, Friends Committee (US) and the International
Civil Liberties Monitoring Group (Canada) today publishes an
in-depth report: "The emergence of a global infrastructure
for registration and surveillance" (20 April, 2005).
Statewatch report: Journalism,
civil liberties and the war on terrorism (full-report/request
printed copy) - Special report by the International Federation
of Journalists and Statewatch including an analysis of current
policy developments as well as a survey of 20 selected countries
in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin Amercia, the Middle East and the
USA (published World press freedom day, 1 May 2005)
Statewatch analysis: The
exceptional and draconian become the norm - G8 and EU counter-terrorism
plans
(updated 26 March 2005 pdf)
Statewatch
"Scoreboard" on EU counter-terrorism plans (pdf) agreed in the
wake of the Madrid bombings. Our analysis shows that 27 out of
the 57 EU proposals have little or nothing to do with tackling
terrorism - they deal with crime in general and surveillance:
Analysis
in Spanish
(March 2004)
The road to "1984"
Part II: Everyone
in the EU will have to have their fingerprints taken to get a
passport
(February 2004)
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