News online - current lead stories                                                         For full contents see: Statewatch News online with news, analysis, documentation and archives or What's New: which lists all new items on the website. See also: In the News. 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):196,882 copies downloaded. Executive Summary (pdf) and NeoConOpticon blog EU: Council of Justice and Home Affairs Ministers (JHA Council), 2-3 December 2010, Brussels: Background Note (pdf), B Points Agenda (pdf) and A Points Agenda: non-legislative (pdf) EU: EUROPEAN INVESTIGATION ORDER (EIO): Statewatch Analysis: Update The Proposed European Investigation Order (pdf) by Steve Peers, Professor of Law, University of Essex: "while the proposed changes will entail a significant improvement as compared to the original proposal, there remain significant flaws with the proposed EIO..... It remains the case that at least in some cases, the combined abolition of dual criminality and territoriality requirements under the Directive 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." (emphasis in original) EU: INTERNAL SECURITY STRATEGY: European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS): EU Counter-Terrorism policy: EDPS calls for a systematic and consistent approach to avoid unnecessary restrictions to privacy (Press release, pdf) and Opinion (pdf) EU: Council of Justice and Home Affairs Ministers (JHA Council), 2-3 December 2010, Brussels: Background Note (pdf) and Agenda for the Press (pdf): EU: Council of the European Union: Nearly complete dossiers on Council's position before beginning negotiations with the European Parliament: - Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on the right to information in criminal proceedings: - General approach on main text (pdf) plus Earlier Council discussions: EU doc no 16371-rev1-10 (pdf) and - Proposal for a Directive on combating the sexual abuse, sexual exploitation of children and child pornography, repealing Framework Decision 2004/68/JHA (pdf) UK: Home Office: Statistics: Racist incidents, England and Wales, 2009-10 (pdf). See: Figures show large rise in number of hate crimes (Independent, link): "More than 50,000 hate crimes were reported across England, Wales and Northern Ireland last year, figures showed today. These included more than 43,000 race-related crimes and almost 5,000 incidents motivated by whether a person was straight, gay or bisexual, the police service figures showed. The Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) said the figures, published for the first time today, showed a more than 12% rise in hate crimes from 46,300 in 2008." EU: Commission Staff Working Paper: On the fulfilment of the 29 measures for reinforcing the protection of the external borders and combating illegal immigration adopted at the JHA Council meeting, on 25 and 26 February 2010 (pdf) EU-ACTA: European Parliament Resolution on Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA): The Joint Resolution RC7-0617/2010 (the resolution proposed by the S&D, ALDE, Greens/EFA and GUE/NGL groups) rejected with 306 votes in favour, 322 against and 26 abstentions while Resolution B7-0618/2010 (proposed by the EPP and ECR groups) adopted by 331 votes in favour to 294 against with 11 abstentions, with one amendment. Text agreed in Tokyo: Consolidated Text: Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement: Informal Pre-decisional/Deliberative Draft: 2 October 2010 (pdf) - EP gives wrong message to the Commission ahead of final ACTA negotiations, say Stavros Lambrinidis and Françoise Caste (Press release, S & D group, pdf) UK: CCTV: Report from Big Brother Watch: The price is wrong: The cost of CCTV surveillance in the United Kingdom (pdf) EUROPE: Report by Border Monitoring Project Ukraine: Access to Protection Denied: Refoulement of Refugees and Minors on the Eastern Borders of the EU - the case of Hungary, Slovakia and Ukraine (pdf) European Centre for Constituional and Human Rights: Blacklisted: Targeted Sanctions, Pre-emptive Security and Fundamental Rights (pdf): by Gavin Sullivan and Ben Hayes and with a foreword by Martin Scheinin - UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights while countering terrorism: Launch: Friday 10 December 2010 at 18:30 – 20:00, ECCHR-Office, Berlin EU: European Commission report: Study on the feasilibty of establishing a mechanism for the beneficiaries of international protection (144 pages, 2.5 MB, pdf) FRANCE: France proposes police controls on who uses public information (Access-Info, link) EU: European Commission: Internal Security Strategy: Press release (pdf) and The EU Internal Security Strategy in Action: Five steps towards a more secure Europe (COM 673, pdf) EU: Council of the European Union: EU Action Plan on combating terrorism (EU doc no: 15893/10, pdf) and Updated version of the implementation of the legislative instruments listed in the Declaration on terrorism (EU doc no: 15893/10 ADD 1, pdf) EU: Council of the European Union: Draft Council conclusions on the role of the police and civil society in combating violent radicalisation and recruitment of terrorists (pdf) See also: Instrument for compiling data and information on violent radicalisation processes and 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 - Draft Council Conclusions on the fight against crimes committed by mobile (itinerant) criminal groups (pdf), see also: Council of the European Union intervenes in the France-Roma controversy - proposing the targeting of "mobile (itinerant) criminal groups": "itinerant"=travellers=Roma EU: Council of Europe: Council of Europe adopts new recommendation on judges’ independence, efficiency and responsibilities (Press release, pdf) and Recommendations - full-text (pdf) Russell Tribunal on Palestine: Statewatch: European Union R&D subsidises for Israeli security actors Submission to the London Session of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine (pdf) EU-USA AGREEMENT: Article 29 Working Party on data protection: Data protection authorities call for strict general privacy agreement with United States (Press release, pdf) and Opinion: EU-US General Agreement (pdf): "the Working Party is however concerned about the possible outcome of the negotiations. It therefore urges the Commission, the Council and the European Parliament to ensure a strict and far reaching negotiating mandate, to obtain a high level of data protection. Coherence is needed in light of current developments, including the review of the EU data protection legal framework and the proposed negotiations with the US on a new PNR agreement." EU-UK: Statewatch Analysis: The UK's European Union Bill (pdf) by Professor Steve Peers, Law School, University of Essex: "In November 2010, the UK government tabled a Bill which would provide for a referendum in the UK in many cases before the EU treaties could be amended in future. The Bill would also enhance parliamentary control of UK government decisions in relation to the UK in many other respects. The following analysis explains this complex bill and comments on the underlying principles underlying it." EU: Migreurop annual report: European borders: controls, detention and deportations (6 MB, pdf) and Introduction (link): "For its second annual report on the European borders, Migreurop has chosen to emphasize three main steps of the fights led by the authorities against the candidates to migration : the controls of their movements, detention and deportation. Based on evidences from fact finding missions, the report gives dramatic examples of this war against migrants which implies a general decline of the law protecting the freedom and integrity of human beings." EU: Statewatch Analysis: First thoughts on the EU’s Internal Security Strategy (pdf ) by Tony Bunyan: "Lessons from history tell us that only a “state” can construct and implement an Internal Security Strategy and the EU state is beginning to flex its muscles with its emerging security-industrial complex, the state-private surveillance society and a free market in the exchange of personal information, the proposed EU-PNR, EU-SWIFT and EU exit-entry system, and aggressive new agencies like FRONTEX. When it finally comes together the ISS will embrace these and other initiatives into its operational planning." - Full contents of Statewatch News online with news, analysis and documentation - In the News carries links 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 government’s 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 EU’s 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: 63,003 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) The Statewatch website Since its launch this website has had 10,383,294, user sessions and 48,343,094 "hits" (October 2010) In the year 2009 there were 1,263,573 user sessions with 7,305,161 "hits" Join Statewatch regular e-mail list for new stories: Join Statewatch news e-mail list Statewatch is registered under the Data Protection Act. Information supplied will be not be passed to third parties The Statewatch searchable database now holds more than 25,000 records (news, features, analyses and documentation): Search database If you use this site regularly, you are encouraged to make a donation to Statewatch to support future research. 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