28 March 2012
Support our work: become a Friend of Statewatch from as little as £1/€1 per month.
EU security research agenda
List of
"personalities" but how much power should they have?
- Did the Commission simply
reproduce the recommendations of the "Group of Personalities"
in its Communication?
Thanks
to Intelligence online a list of the "Group of Personalities"
(GOP), who are advising the European Commission on the security
research agenda, is available, see: List
of the "Group of Personalities" (link). The list includes
two Commissioners, Busquin (DG Research) and Liikanen (DG Information
Society), plus as Observers Chris Patten (Commissioner for External
Relations) and Pascal Lamy (Commissioner for Trade), and Mr Solana
from the Council of the European Union. It is surprising that
Commissioner Vittorino (DG Justice and Home Affairs) is not involved
as a number of key topics, like "enhancing surveillance
of land and sea borders" and "biometrics, automatic
chips with positioning" to track the movement of "goods
and persons", are listed.
In addition there
are eight multinational companies (including BAE and Siemens)
and seven "research" institutions (including the Rand
Corporation). The military is well represented by Lord Robertson
from NATO (ex head of NATO), the EU Military Committee and the
Western European Armaments Organisation. Each has an assigned
"sherpa" (an imperialist term for the people who do
the real work).
See Statewatch's first report: EU: Security research programme:
Report
and documentation
The GOP held its first meeting in Brussels on 6 October 2003 and will submit its conclusions in the "spring of 2004". A factsheet produced by the Commission (MEMO/03/192, 7.10.03) says the GOP will only meet twice and give "guidance" for the "European Security Research Agenda". The factsheet notes that the US Department of Homeland Security will have a budget of $1 billion on 2004 and that US defence spending will be $58.6 billion, and that: "the EU is at risk of becoming more dependent and vulnerable in this essential area".
Another Note from the Commission posted on 10 October 2003 says that:
"Its
[the GOP] recommendations will be included in a Communication
to be presented by the Commission by the end of 2003"
This
is a reference to the Communication produced on 3 February 2004:
COM
72
(full-text, pdf). This Communication states that the GOP will:
"prepare a policy oriented report... that will be the subject of a Commission Communication foreseen for Spring 2004"
Tony Bunyan, Statewatch editor, comments:
"The role of the "Group of Personalities" in the Commission's Communication is unclear. Did the Commission simply reproduce the "recommendations" of the GOP's first report? If they did it would be most improper and unconstitutional.
It is the job of the Commission to produce Communications the subject of which may be the recommendations of an external group but the Communication itself must represent the views of the Commission, not those of an unaccountable group.
Will the "recommendations"
of the GOP's final report be the "subject" of a Commission
Communication or will they be simply transposed and legitimated
by supporting arguments?"
See Statewatch's first
report: EU: Security research programme to look at creating "smart"
biometric documents which will "locate,identify and follow
the movement of persons" through "automatic
chips with positioning": Report and documentation
Spotted an error? If you've spotted a problem with this page, just click once to let us know.