What's New
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June 2013
"reading
people's email before/as they do": GCHQ
intercepted foreign politicians' communications at G20 summits:
Exclusive: phones were monitored and fake internet cafes set
up to gather information from allies in London in 2009 (Guardian, link)
"One document refers to a tactic which was "used a lot in recent UK conference, eg G20". The tactic, which is identified by an internal codeword which the Guardian is not revealing, is defined in an internal glossary as "active collection against an email account that acquires mail messages without removing them from the remote server". A PowerPoint slide explains that this means "reading people's email before/as they do".[emphasis added]
Tony Bunyan, Statewatch Director, comments: "These revelations come as no surprise to those who have tracked US-UK intelligence-gathering since the 1946 UKUSA agreement setting up global cooperation between the NSA and GCHQ. Intercepts by GCHQ are routinely forwarded to the Cabinet Office and then onto Ministries like the Foreign Office and have always given UK Ministers and officials the inside track in EU and international negotiations. Secondly, this confirms that a technological capacity of "reading people's email before/as they do" can be used not only to spy on other governments but also on organisations and individuals in civil society."
Background: UK-USA: National Archive publishes details of the 1946 UKUSA agreement for first time (Statewatch database)
PARIS: Press
conference on the 'left to die boat' case (link)
EU: Article 29 Working Party on data protection: Scheme does
not meet the tests of necessity and proportionality: Serious
concerns regarding proposed Entry Exit System (Press release, pdf)
and Opinion (pdf)
"In its opinion the Working Party highlights that the added value of an Entry Exit System to achieve its aims is not a sufficient test to prove its necessity and its proportionality in terms of its impact on fundamental rights. The Working Party’s opinion furthermore calls into question whether the Entry Exit System can be effective in achieving its own stated aims. Even if it were accepted that the proposed system provided significant added value, the opinion concludes that the added value of the Entry Exit System to achieving its stated aims does not meet the threshold of necessity which can justify interference with the rights under Article 8 of the EU Charter of Fundamental rights. Furthermore, the opinion expresses that the added value of the proposed system is not proportionate to the scale of its impact on fundamental rights in relation to each of its aims, and that alternatives exist to meet its aims."
G8: PREPARATIONS: The
security tightens, the tension rises, the preparations speed
up
(Belfast Telegraph, link), G8
summit security operation steps up as world leaders head for
Northern Ireland: Security and policing costs could reach £50million,
with an additional £10million on staging the summit at
the luxury golf resort (Daily Mirror, link) and
G8: Lock down on Lough Erne (BBC News, link)
EU
websites track users without warning, against own rules (euractiv, link): "The
European Data Protection Supervisor, Peter Hustinx, said that
institutions were aware of the problem, that new guidelines are
being drawn up to deal with the issue, and that his own office
avoided using EU institutional software last year because he
realised they were “inappropriate”. The EDPS is
referring to the inappropriate use of cookies by EU institutions
and commercially.
In our own backyard the EU's Directive on mandatory data retention (2006) requires service providers to hold records of all communication data (who contacted who and when) for e-mails, faxes, landline and mobile phone calls (including the location) and to give law enforcement agencies access to this data. Tony Bunyan, Statewatch Director, comments: "However, the Directive also requires records to be kept of all internet usage across the EU. Access to a person's internet usage also reveals its content, the pages looked at."
EU: CYBER SECURITY v. PRIVACY: Credible cyber security strategy
in the EU needs to be built on privacy and trust: Cyber security
is not an excuse for the unlimited monitoring and analysis of
the personal information of individuals, said the European Data
Protection Supervisor (EDPS): Press
release
(pdf) and Opinion (pdf): Peter Hustinx
(EDPS) said:
"if the EU wants to cooperate with other countries, including the USA, on cyber security, it must necessarily be on the basis of mutual trust and respect for fundamental rights, a foundation which currently appears compromised."
EU-USA: A
transatlantic corporate bill of rights: Investor privileges in
EU-US trade deal threaten public interest and democracy
(Corporate Observatory Europe, link)
US defends spy programme to sceptical EU (euobserver, link)
GREECE-EU: Council of the European Union: Greece's
National Action Plan on Asylum Reform and Migration Management:
Information by Greece (pdf) The plans include "Pre-removal centres"
run by the police:
"Five (5) pre-removal centres are operating in Amygdaleza, Corinth, Paranesti, Xanthi and Komotini, with total capacity of 5000 places. The establishment of four (4) additional preremoval facilities at Lesvos, Western Macedonia, Ritsona and Karoti- Evros, will increase the total capacity to 10.000 places by the end of 2014." and for border controls the:
"extension
of the existing integrated border surveillance system, in progress
in the area of Evros (i.e. thermal cameras), focuses on the improvement
of border management, the reduction of the deployed human resources
(i.e. police officers) and, consequently, the limitation of the
respective costs. The project of the Orestiada P.D., covering
35km of the river border, will be completed by the end of 2013,
whereas the study for the project of the Alexadroupolis P.D.
(i.e. 90 km borderline surveillance), is expected to be ready
by the end of June.
The establishment of five (5) Regional Operational Centres at
the Eastern Aegean Islands (Lesvos, Chios, Samos, Kos and Rhodes)
will be completed by the end of July."
EU-USA: DATA SURVEILLANCE: How the USA changed the Commission's
draft proposal for the new Regulation on EU data protection before
it was formally adopted in January 2012 so as not to stand in
the way of FISA/PRISM surveillance of the EU: The Financial
Times
reported on 12 June 2013, that due to US pressure and high-level
lobbying, the Commission's
draft proposal for the new Regulation on data protection (pdf), sent out for
inter-service consultation in December 2011, was amended by deleting
Article 42. Article 42 would have been effectively an "anti-FISA
clause" (the USA's Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act)
and was deleted, after lobbying, by the full college of Commissioners
as this would have led to major conflicts with the USA because
most data servers of internet companies holding data on EU citizens
are based in the USA. The Financial Times quotes a EU
official as saying: "White House officials were making
the rounds here and especially targeting Commissioners who have
close relationships to the US to get them to remove Article 42"
(in the draft proposal).
This volte-face by the Commission followed overt lobbying by the US officials including the submission of an Informal Note on Draft EU General Data Protection Regulation (December 2011) (pdf) from the USA and (put online at the time by Statewatch) which led to negative opinions being expressed by a number of Commission DGs.
The US Note says that Article 42 would impede and hinder law enforcement cooperation because "provision should be made to prohibit a controller or processor to directly dispose personal data to requesting third countries, unless authorised to do so by a supervisory authority [eg: a member state data protection authority... the draft regulation would effectively undermine international cooperation" - the "international cooperation" referred to is, of course, a one-way street whereby the USA reserves to itself to right to put under surveillance anyone in the EU or the world.
The final, adopted
an published, version: Proposal
for a Regulation on the protection of individuals with regard
to the processing of personal data and on
the free movement of such data (General Data Protection Regulation) (25 January 2012, pdf)
EU-USA: DATA SURVEILLANCE: Spies
Without Borders I: Using Domestic Networks to Spy on the World
(EFFI,
link) and
International Customers: It's Time to Call on US Internet Companies
to Demand Accountability and Transparency (EFFI, link)
EU: Committee
asked to reconsider passenger data plan (European Voice, link): The Civil Liberties
Committee of the European Parliament (LIBE) opposed the idea
of extending the EU-PNR proposal to also cover tracking passengers'
movements inside the EU (recording all travel between Member
States). This extension of the proposals scope was initiated
by the UK government and other governments in the Justice and
Home Affairs Council. The original proposal from the European
Commission concerned only monitoring air travel from outside
the EU (those coming into the EU from third countries on visas
or visa-free countries). The Committee's report was due to be
discussed at the Strasbourg plenary session this week but the
Conference of Presidents (the party leaders in the EP) stepped
in and sent it back to the Committee.
EU: Data
protection authorities condemn Commission's Europol proposal
The data protection provisions of the European Commission's most recent law enforcement proposal have been condemned by European data protection authorities, with the Joint Supervisory Board of Europol saying that they are a "a clear retrograde step" that "would result in a much weaker Europol data protection regime."
At the end of March, the Commission published a proposal for a Regulation that would establish a European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation and Training, merging Europol (whose name the new agency would retain) and the European Police College, CEPOL. At the beginning of May both agencies rejected the proposal, arguing that their "core mandates do not overlap though they co-operate on some training issues relevant to serious crime."
EU: ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS: Access to documents:
Parliament calls for immediate action to break the deadlock (Press release, pdf):
"The Commission should engage fully in the amending and ‘Lisbonising’ of the 2001 regulation on access to documents, or take "any appropriate measures to break the deadlock", and Council should immediately restart debates to adopt its first-reading position and to continue negotiations, ask MEPs."
The resolution was adopted by 333 votes in favour, 128 against and 50 abstentions.
EU-USA: DATA SURVEILLANCE: EU Commissioner
Reding's letter to the US Attorney-General (full-text, pdf) See
below for background. Poses seven questions and opens with:
"I have serious concerns about recent media reports that United States authorities are accessing and processing, on a large scale, the data of European Union citizens using major US online service providers. Programmes such as PRISM and the laws on the basis of which such programmes are authorised could have grave adverse consequences for the fundamental rights of EU citizens."
EU-USA: DATA SURVEILLANCE: Council of Europe statement: Declaration
of the Committee of Ministers on Risks to Fundamental Rights
stemming from Digital Tracking and other Surveillance Technologies (pdf) OPens with the
following:
"Data processing in the information society which is carried out without the necessary safeguards and security can raise major human rights related concerns. Legislation allowing broad surveillance of citizens can be found contrary to the right to respect of private life. These capabilities and practices can have a chilling effect on citizen participation in social, cultural and political life and, in the longer term, could have damaging effects on democracy. They can also undermine the confidentiality rights associated to certain professions, such as the protection of journalists’ sources, and even threaten the safety of the persons concerned. More generally, they can endanger the exercise of freedom of expression and the right to receive and impart information protected under Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights"
and among its Recommendations it: "encourages member States to bear these risks in mind in their bilateral discussions with third countries, and, where necessary, consider the introduction of suitable export controls to prevent the misuse of technology to undermine those standards"
UN-UK:
Report of the Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of
peaceful assembly and of association, Maina Kiai: Mission to
the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (pdf): The Recommendations
(see p21) include on the Right to freedom of peaceful assembly:
England and Wales:
"•
adopt a positive law on the right to freedom of peaceful assembly
whose purpose is to facilitate and protect such right, in full
consultation with civil society and other relevant stakeholders;
• undertake a judge-led public enquiry into the Mark Kennedy
matter, and other related cases, with a view to giving voice
to victims, especially women, who were deliberately deceived
by their own government, and paving the way for reparations;
• review legislation governing undercover policing specifying
that peaceful protestors should not be infiltrated;
• adopt a law on intelligence gathering with a view to increasing
accountability of intelligence services;
• delete any records of peaceful protestors on the National
Domestic Extremism Database and other intelligence databases;
• adopt a tighter definition of “domestic extremism”
and instruct police officers that peaceful protestors should
not be categorized as domestic extremists;
• end the practice of containment or „kettling.;
• ensure that law enforcement authorities which violate
the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly are held personally
and fully accountable for such violations by an independent and
democratic oversight body, and by the courts of law; in this
regard, command responsibility must be upheld;
• law enforcement officers should wear identification badges
at all times;
• stop using pre-emptive measures targeted at peaceful protestors;
• stop using stop-and-search powers in the context of peaceful
protests;
• stop imposing stringent bail conditions on peaceful protestors;
• establish a protest ombudsman before whom protestors can
challenge bail conditions;
• stop enforcing private injunctions against peaceful protestors;
• separate the protest liaison function from intelligence
gathering;
• always allow independent monitoring during peaceful protests
and assemblies and ensure at all time the protection of those
monitoring and reporting on violations and abuses in this context;
• grant more powers to the Independent Police Complaints
Commission, by notably allowing the Commission to report before
the Parliament, and increasing its resources; protestors should
be able to bring complaints directly to the Commission; and a
greater mixed nature of investigators should be achieved;
and Private companies should stop requesting private injunctions
orders against peaceful protestors."
See also: UN Special Rapporteur calls for a "judge-led public inquiry" into undercover police operations and condemns a number of other police practices (Statewatch News Online, January 2013)
USA-EU: DATA SURVEILLANCE:
Europe warns US: you must respect the privacy of our citizens:
EU officials demand answers on what data snooping programmes
entail and whether they breach human rights (Guardian, link),
US spy scandal widens as MEPs and MPs seek answers (euobserver, link) and
Parliament expresses anger over US data scandal (euractiv, link)
BULGARIA: Statewatch Analysis: The use and misuse
of telephone taps and communications data by Bulgarian intelligence (pdf) by Alexander Kashumov
(Access to Information Program, AIP):
Tzvetan Tzvetanov, Minister of Interior in the Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria (GERB) government from 2009-2013, was criticised for widespread unauthorised wiretapping after information was published in the media in 2013. Concerns surfaced following an anonymous complaint registered with the Public Prosecutor’s Office and a former minister’s outspoken allegation, in a television interview, that all GERB cabinet ministers were subject to permenant phone-tapping throughout their time in office. On 15 April 2013, the Prosecutor General told a press conference that his investigation had revealed a lack of oversight within the Internal Ministry Directorate responsible for the technical performance of phone tapping. The investigation’s report was only partly classified as secret, but neither the open nor the secret part of the report was made available to the public.
UK:University and College Union: Guidance for
UCU branches in relation to implementation of government immigration
rules
(link): It is a bit contradictory, but better than previous statements.
USA: DATA Surveillance:
Newly Revealed PRISM Snooping Makes Verizon Surveillance Look
Like Kids' Stuff (The Slate, link) and House
Votes To Renew Warrantless Wiretapping Bill, but No One Knows
How Many Americans Are Spied On (The Slate) and What Is PRISM?
(Gizmodo, link)
USA: DATA SURVEILLANCE: ACLU
Files Lawsuit Challenging NSA's Patriot Act Phone Surveillance (ACLU, link): The ACLU
are taking a court action against the PRISM surveillance system
which is authorised under the Patriot Act Section 215 using a
FISA Order (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act). PRISM collects
personal information from users of Skype, Facebook, Google, Microsoft
etc from inside and outside the USA (described as "customers"
of US-based internet services).
See also: ; What's in the rest of the top-secret NSA PowerPoint deck? (Wired): refers to fact that only 5 of the 41 pages handed over to the press by Edward Snowden have so far been published. and Spy court urged to unmask legal basis for NSA dragnet phone surveillance (Wired)
Statewatch News Digest: 12 June 2013
(71 items)
UK: G8
protests: 57 people arrested in London after clashes between
police and anti-capitalist demonstrators: Major operation launched
to clear central London HQ of anti-G8 movement in former police
station
(Independent, link) and see: Police
violence at Stopg8 protest (Netpol, link)
EU-USA: DATA SURVEILLANCE: Edward
Snowden: saving us from the United Stasi of America: Snowden's
whistleblowing gives us a chance to roll back what is tantamount
to an 'executive coup' against the US constitution (Guardian, link): Daniel
Ellsberg:
"In my estimation, there has not been in American history a more important leak than Edward Snowden's release of NSA material – and that definitely includes the Pentagon Papers 40 years ago. Snowden's whistleblowing gives us the possibility to roll back a key part of what has amounted to an "executive coup" against the US constitution."
The European Parliament plenary session this morning (11 June) is discussing: "US Internet surveillance of EU citizens (NSA PRISM programme): Commission statement": EU to seek privacy guarantees from US after intel scandal (link)
- Spy
scandal to impact talks on EU-US data treaty (euobserver, link)
- US
data surveillance worries German expert (DW, link) article by Thilo Weichert
- Time
for Europe to stop being complicit in NSA's crimes (New Europe, link)
- US
data scandal deepens EU-US divide on privacy (euractiv, link)
- US
scandal shows EU needs 'highest standards' on data privacy (Public Service Europe,
link)
EU: Reactions to exposures on PRISM and Boundless Informant
CZECH REPUBLIC:
Prague to protest if US monitoring of Internet is confirmed (Prague Daily Monitor)
EU:
US data scandal deepens EU-US divide on privacy (EurActiv)
PRISM
makes trade deal a mission impossible (Presseurop)
GERMANY: Germany’s
Merkel, concerned about US surveillance, will discuss with Obama (Epoch Times);
Germany
most snooped country by US (euobserver)
NETHERLANDS: Dutch
security service has received information via PRISM Telegraaf and Dutch
privacy watchdog wants answers on US data mining (Dutch News) and Bits
of Freedom: Dutch spooks must stop use of PRISM (link)
Belgium: Ook
Staatsveiligheid krijgt informatie uit Prism (link)
A
lesson from history for those who strive to bring intelligence
agencies to account (The Privacy Surgeon)
EU:
Handbook on European law relating to asylum, borders and immigration (link) by the Fundamental
Rights Agency and European Court of Human Rights
Secrecy
at EU level is a challenge to democracy: Parliaments are increasingly
being eclipsed by powers assumed at European level (Irish Times, link)
Article by Professor Deirdre Curtin
Boundless
Informant: the NSA's secret tool to track global surveillance
data: Revealed: The NSA's powerful tool for cataloguing global
surveillance data – including figures on US collection (Guardian, link). And
see: Boundless
Informant NSA data-mining tool – four key slides (link) and Boundless
Informant: NSA explainer – full document text (link)
EU: Justice and Home
Affairs Council, 6-7 June 2013: Press release (pdf) "B"
Points agenda for discussion (pdf), "A"
Points agenda: legislative (adopted without discussion, pdf), "A"
Points agenda: non-legislative (adopted without discussion, pdf)
EU
countries back pro-business data bill (euobserver, link)
US
spy chief Clapper defends Prism and phone surveillance (BBC News, link): "While
admitting the government collected communications from internet
firms, he said the policy only targets "non-US persons",
So that's OK is it? comments Tony Bunyan, Statewatch Director.
And: NSA
taps in to systems of Google, Facebook, Apple and others, secret
files reveal
(Guardian, link)
See also: USA: NSA collecting phone records of millions daily, court order reveals Guardian (link) Exclusive: Top secret court order requiring Verizon to hand over all call data shows scale of domestic surveillance under Obama. And Verizon court order (link) and NSA spying revelations leaves Europe silent (New Europe, link)
Syrians
accuse Greece of 'pushing back' migrant boats (BBC News, link)
Statewatch News Digest: 6 June 2013 (113 items)
EU: NEW DATA PROTECTION REGULATION: European
Parliament: Working documents, draft report and amendments (link)
EU: NEW DATA PROTECTION REGULATION:Council of the European Union:
Proposal
for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council
on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing
of personal data and on the free movement of such data (General
Data Protection Regulation) - Key issues of Chapters I-IV (pdf): This Council
document says, in a change to the Commission draft Regulation,
that it is intending to have different rules for EU institutions,
bodies and agencies:
"14a)
(…) Regulation (EC) No 45/20014 (…) applies to the
processing of personal data by the Union institutions, bodies,
offices and agencies. Regulation (EC)
No 45/2001 and other Union legal instruments applicable to such
processing of personal data should be adapted to the principles
and rules of this Regulation (…).
See coverage below.
NEW
DATA PROTECTION REGULATION: EU
institutions seek exclusion, extra time on data protection (euractiv, link):
"EU justice ministers meeting in Luxembourg today (6 June) are expected to consider giving EU institutions a sweeping exemption from new data protection rules....The Commission and other EU bodies would apply the new data protection measures after the adoption of the new regulation, using a special internal rule that has been criticised by the EU’s own data protection watchdog, according to a proposal seen by EurActiv.
In a January 2011 opinion, the EDPS described such a method of regulating the institutions as "inferior," adding: “It would be highly undesirable for the EDPS to supervise compliance of EU institutions and bodies with substantive rules which would be inferior to the rules supervised by his counterparts at national level.”"
UK: ANTI-SURVEILLANCE CAMPAIGNERS TO MARK ORWELL'S '1984 'PUBLICATION
- and reject government's Orwellian 'surveillance by consent'
Press
release
(link) Home Office: Surveillance
Camera Code of Practice Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 –
Government response to statutory consultation over the Surveillance
Camera Code of Practice (pdf) and Amended
Code
(pdf)
EU: Meijers Committee: Note Meijers
Committee on the Proposal for a Directive on the conditions of
entry and residence of third-country nationals for the purposes
of research, studies, pupil exchange, remunerated and unremunerated
training, voluntary service and au pairing (COM(2013) 151 final) (pdf) and Note
on the proposal for a Directive on the protection of the euro
and other currencies against counterfeiting by criminal law (COM(2013)
42 final)
(pdf)
USA: NSA
collecting phone records of millions daily, court order reveals
Guardian
(link) Exclusive: Top secret court order requiring Verizon to
hand over all call data shows scale of domestic surveillance
under Obama. And Verizon
court order
(link)
Jesuit Refugee Service: Europe:
EU rules impede asylum protection (link)
"Asylum seekers in Europe are often faced with EU rules that hinder their ability to seek asylum in an EU country where they would feel most protected. This is according to a new JRS Europe report, Protection Interrupted, released today. The report is based on interviews with 257 asylum seekers and migrants in nine EU countries."
EU: JHA Council, 6-7 June 2013: European
Commission Memo (5 June, pdf)
EU: Council of the European Union: Proposal
for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council
on the right of access to a lawyer in criminal proceedings and
on the right to communicate upon arrest [First reading] - Approval
of the final compromise text (10190/13, pdf)
"On 28 May
2013, the negotiating parties reached agreement on a final compromise
text on the draft Directive. This text is set out in the Annex...Coreper
is invited:
a) to approve the final compromise text as set out in the Annex
to this note;
b) to mandate the Presidency to inform the European Parliament
that, should the European Parliament adopt its position at first
reading in the exact form as set out in the final compromise
text, the Council would approve the European Parliament's position
and the Directive shall be adopted in the wording which corresponds
to the European Parliament's position, subject to legal-linguist
revision of the text."
EU: European Commission: Third
biannual report on the functioning of the Schengen area, 1 November
2012 - 30 April 2013 (COM 2013 326, pdf)
"The Commission adopts biannual reports to the European Parliament and to the Council on the functioning of the Schengen area. This third report covers the period 1 November 2012 – 30 April 2013."
EU: Council of the European Union: processing of personal data:
Proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data (General Data Protection Regulation) - Key issues of Chapters I-IV (10227/13, pdf) and Annex (10227/13 ADD 1, pdf)
Spanish
police might use trojans to spy computers (New Europe, link)
Garda
chiefs draw up list of hardline G8 protesters (Independent.ie, link)
US
State Department Country Reports on Terrorism (link)
EU: Court of Justice: The
essence of the reasons for a decision refusing entry into a Member
State must be disclosed to the person concerned (press release, 4 June,
pdf)
"However, a Member State may, so far as is strictly necessary, refuse to notify the person concerned of ground, the disclosure of which might compromise State security."
See: Judgment in Case C-300/11, ZZ v Secretary of State for the Home Department (link)
EU: JHA Council, 6-7 June 2013: Provisional
agenda
(pdf) Background
note
(pdf)
"Whilst Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) States Parties are prohibited from developing riot control agent (RCA) munitions for use in armed conflict, they may manufacture, acquire and utilise delivery systems to disseminate appropriate types and quantities of RCAs for law enforcement. However, there is continuing ambiguity as to the type and specifications of those means of delivery that are prohibited under the Convention. This ambiguity has potentially dangerous consequences, allowing divergent interpretations, policy and practice amongst States Parties to emerge.
This report highlights the development, testing, production and promotion by State or commercial entities of a range of “wide area” RCA means of delivery including: large smoke generators, backpack or tank irritant sprayer devices; large calibre under-barrel and rifle grenade launchers; multiple munition launchers; automatic grenade launchers; rocket propelled grenades; mortar munitions; large calibre aerial munitions; heliborne munition dispensers; cluster munitions; unmanned aerial vehicles; unmanned ground vehicles; vehicle protection and area denial munitions."
EU: European Data Protection Supervisor: Strong
data protection to improve EU approach to serious crimes (press release, 3 June,
pdf)
"Robust data protection considerations can strengthen the credibility of investigations into serious crimes in the EU. This is the message the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) sent in his opinion published today on the Commission proposal for a new legal framework for the EU Agency for Law Enforcement and Training (Europol). The EDPS fully supports the need for innovative and flexible approaches in preventing and combating serious crimes, but also insists on strong safeguards. The validity of a criminal investigation relies on the quality and integrity of the data collected. Respecting data protection principles can help reinforce the reliability of such evidence."
See also:
EU data chief urges limits on joint police powers (euobserver, link)
UN: Human Rights Council: Report
of the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of
the right to freedom of opinion and expression, Frank La Rue (pdf)
"The present report, submitted in accordance with Human Rights Council resolution 16/4, analyses the implications of States’ surveillance of communications on the exercise of the human rights to privacy and to freedom of opinion and expression. While considering the impact of significant technological advances in communications, the report underlines the urgent need to further study new modalities of surveillance and to revise national laws regulating these practices in line with human rights standards."
See: UN report: The link between State surveillance and freedom of expression (Privacy International, link)
EU: Meijers Committee: Note
on the Proposal for a Directive on the conditions of entry and
residence of third-country nationals for the purposes of research,
studies, pupil exchange, remunerated and unremunerated training,
voluntary service and au pairing (pdf)
Transnational Institute: Investor
privileges in EU-US trade deal threaten public interest and democracy (link)
"This briefing analyses leaked proposals for so-called investor-state dispute settlement under the proposed EU-US deal and reveals a determined lobby campaign from industry lobby groups and law firms to grant unprecedented rights to corporations to sue governments for legislation and regulations that interfere with their profits."
Council of Europe: Venice
Commission draft opinion on the fourth amendment to the fundamental
law of Hungary (pdf)
A leaked copy of a draft report on democracy in Hungary by an advisory body of the Council of Europe.
EU: European Parliament reports:
On the proposal for a directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on the freezing and confiscation of proceeds of crime in the European Union (A7-0178/13, pdf)
EU: Council of the European Union: Proposal
for a Regulation on the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement
Cooperation and Training (Europol) - Discussion paper (10213/13, pdf)
EU: JHA Council, 6-7 June 2013, Lunch Item (Justice Ministers):
The
Charter of Fundamental Rights - three and a half years in force (10265/13, pdf)
"Questions
for discussion:
1. Has the Charter had an impact on legislative activities in
your Member State?
2. What can the Member States do to increase the visibility of
the Charter in their day-to-day work?
3. How can the Member States better communicate the complexities
relating to the scope of the Charter?
4. What role might National Human Rights Institutions play in
making the Charter more effective at local level?"
UN: UK
needs prompt action on human rights record, UN panel warns (Guardian, link)
"The British government's human rights record since the attacks of 9/11 and the invasion of Iraq is facing ferocious criticism from a United Nations panel, which warns that prompt action is needed to ensure the country meets its obligations under international law."
See: Concluding observations on the fifth periodic report of the United Kingdom, adopted by the Committee at its fiftieth session (31 May 2013, pdf)
UK
rhetoric on EU immigration plays into hands of far right (Public Service Europe,
link)
May 2013
Netherlands: Government
moves to criminalise irregular migrants
As elsewhere in Europe, undocumented migrants in the Netherlands face tough conditions. They are frequently excluded from the most basic facilities and services and face the prospect of arrest, vreemdelingendetentie (foreigners' detention) and deportation. The conditions in Dutch immigration detention centres are so bad that Amnesty International has sounded the alarm and issued several reports to raise awareness of the issue. Now the government is attempting to clamp down further on the undocumented through criminalising their status, claiming that a proposed new law will have "a deterrent effect" by making it "less attractive" to residence irregularly.
EU: 'Freedom
of movement is slowly being undermined' (Deutsche Welle, link)
"The countries in the Schengen border-free area will in future be able to impose border controls if they don't like how other countries control immigration. DW spoke to a Green member of the European parliament."
UK: Killer
blows to justice (IRR, link)
"In the blizzard of coalition measures wreaking destruction on living standards, the justice ministry’s proposals on legal aid will once again bear down hardest on poor BME, Muslim and migrant communities."
EU: Court of Justice of the European Union: Judgment in Case
C-168/13 PPU, Jeremy F. v Premier ministre: EU
law does not prevent Member States from providing for an appeal
suspending execution of a decision extending the effects of a
European arrest warrant (press release, pdf)
"EU law does, however, require that, in the case where the Member States choose to provide for such an appeal, the decision to extend should be taken within the time-limits provided for by EU law in cases concerning the European arrest warrant"
EU: Council of the European Union: Proposal
for a Council Regulation on the establishment of an evaluation
mechanism to verify the application of the Schengen acquis -
Revised draft compromise text (9606/13, pdf)
"A revised compromise text, taking into account the outcome of the informal meetings with the European Parliament and the Commission, as well as the meeting of JHA Counsellors on 15 May 2013 and the outcome of the contacts, at a high-level, of the Legal Services of the three institutions, following a suggestion from the high-level trilogue which took place on 18 December 2012."
EU: Council of the European Union: EU
Annual Report on Human Rights and Democracy in the World in 2012
- Country Reports (9431/13 ADD 1 REV 1, pdf)
EU: Council of the European Union: Initiative
for a Directive regarding the European Investigation Order in
criminal matters - Text suggestions in view of the trilogue on
11 June 2013
(9747/13, pdf)
"In view of the Friends of the Presidency meeting on 31 May and on the basis of the trilogue on15 May 2013 delegations will find attached suggestions from the Presidency on some of the issues that will be discussed at the next trilogue."
EU: Council of the European Union: Standing Committee on operational
co-operation on internal security (COSI): EU
Policy Cycle: Implementation Monitoring (9996/13, pdf)
"As set out in the Council Conclusions on the creation and implementation of a EU policy cycle for organised and serious international crime, COSI shall every 6 months monitor the progress of the implementation of the operational action plans."
Member States are pushing for one of the EU’s proposed border control and migration management systems to be adapted for law enforcement and counter-terrorism purposes as well. If they are successful in their efforts, police and security agencies across the EU could gain access to a wealth of new personal and biometric data on third-country nationals.
Germany: "City
of Frankfurt denies freedom of association"
In May last year, a series of protests "against the austerity dictatorship" were organised by the Blockupy network in Frankfurt. They were due to take place near the headquarters of the European Central Bank, but local authorities issued a near-complete ban on all protests for four days. The measures were heavily-criticised, and higher courts later ruled that some of them had been illegal. This week the protests are returning to the city.
EU: European Data Protection Supervisor: 'Smart,
sustainable, inclusive Europe': only with stronger and more effective
data protection (press release, pdf)
"The lobbying surrounding the current review of the EU data protection law by organisations both from Europe and elsewhere has been exceptional. Following the presentation of his Annual Report of activities for 2012 to the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) at the European Parliament today, the EDPS warned the EU legislator to guard against undue pressure from industry and third countries to lower the level of data protection that currently exists and instead seize the opportunity to ensure stronger and more effective protection to individuals across the EU."
See also: New data protection rules at risk, EU watchdog warns (euractiv, link)
"New EU data protection rules could collapse because of ‘excessive lobbying’, foot-dragging by MEPs, and entanglement in trade negotiations with the United States, Europe’s chief data protection watchdog warned yesterday (29 May)."
EU: Council of the European Union: Council
and the European Parliament reach a provisional agreement on
the Schengen Governance legislative package (30 May 2013, pdf)
"The Permanent Representatives Committee (Coreper) today endorsed the agreement reached with the European Parliament on 29 May on the Schengen governance legislative proposals, namely a regulation on the establishment of an evaluation and monitoring mechanism to verify the application of the Schengen acquis and an amendment to the Schengen Borders Code as regards the rules for the temporary reintroduction of border controls at internal borders in exceptional circumstances."
EU: Council of the European Union: Draft
Final Report on Action 5.10: “To find and recommend best
practice for customs cooperation in criminal matters” (8253/13, pdf)
See also: 111-page Annex which includes a comparative study of legal instruments (8253/13 ADD 1, pdf)
EU: European Commission: The
EU rights of victims of trafficking in human beings (pdf)
32 page report "addressed to victims and to practitioners seeking an overview of rights based on EU legislation, as well as to Member States developing similar overviews of rights of human traffi cking victims at national level."
EU: Council of the European Union: Paper
on a permanent structure for Joint Customs Operations - Response
of Customs Cooperation Working Party to discussion initiated
by the European Anti-Fraud Office (pdf)
Provides an overview of an ongoing discussion “on the possible establishment of an Operation Centre (OC), which could have responsibility for addressing ongoing practical issues in the management of [Joint Customs Operations].”
EU: Council of the European Union: Declassified versions of mutual
evaluations of Belgium, Denmark, Estonia and Slovakia with regard to two Council
Decisions: 2002/187/JHA setting up Eurojust, and 2008/976/JHA
on the European Judicial Network in criminal matters (pdfs)
The reports were all produced this year: on 7 February (Belgium), 17 February (Slovakia) and 22 April (Denmark and Estonia), and range from 47 to 80 pages in length. They include some limited information on cooperation between the national authorities and Eurojust on controlled deliveries and special investigative techniques, such as the use of undercover agents.
EU: Joint
Eurojust-Europol Annual Report to the Council and the Commission
for 2012
(9038/13, pdf)
This short report outlines the main work undertake by Eurojust and Europol to “foster closer co-operation and operational complementarity in the fight against serious cross-border crime by increasing information exchange and improving their strategic and operational cooperation in supporting the Member States.”
This work includes:
- Connecting
Eurojust to SIENA (Secure Information Exchange Network Application),
through which Europol, Member States and others exchange information
and intelligence;
- The “exploration of further association of Eurojust to
AWFs [Analysis Work Files] (Focal Points)” – AWFs or
Focal Points are pools of information in Europol’s computer
system on a particular topic or group and Eurojust can now acess
17 of these;
- “Increase in information on meetings including operational
and coordination meetings and participation in respective meetings”;
- “Close cooperation as regards the European Cybercrime
Centre,” which opened in January this year and is managed
by Europol;
- “Full implementation of the joint exchange programme”
UK: Anonymous-linked
groups publish EDL supporters' personal information (Guardian, link) "Individuals
claiming to be part of international hacktivist group Anonymous
have published phone numbers and addresses for supporters of
the English Defence League (EDL) as part of what they said was
the first phase of a campaign to destroy the far-right street
protest movement."
Background: EDL supporters march through central London - video (Channel 4 News): "Supporters of the far-right English Defence League march through central London, closely followed by anti-fascist protesters, after the murder of soldier Lee Rigby in Woolwich on Wednesday." EDL blames Islam for Woolwich attack at Downing Street protest (Guardian); Anti-Muslim protests over murdered British soldier (euronews); Far-right EDL supporters clash with police in Woolwich (Channel 4 News) and Ten attacks on mosques since Woolwich murder (Independent)
EU: Frontex:
"optionally-piloted" aircraft tests, but no drones...yet
Statewatch reported last month that the EU's border agency Frontex is looking to buy a piloted plane to use for surveillance of the Greek-Turkish border during the summer. It has now emerged that the agency is also looking to enhance its border surveillance capabilities through the use of an "optionally-piloted vehicle" - a plane that can be flown with or without a pilot on board.
EU: Article 29 Data Protection Working Party: European
Data Protection Authorities argue for clear limits to profiling
– further input to the data protection reform discussions (press release, 28 May
2013, pdf)
"Profiling
has found its way into many areas of life, for example in the
form of consumer profiles, movem ent profiles, user profiles
and social profiles. Due to the widespread availability of personal
data on the internet, the increasing possibilities of linking
such data and the fact that technical devices operating on the
basis of processing personal data p ervade our everyday lives,
profiling has become one of the biggest challenges to privacy.
Therefore the Working Party has adopted an advice paper on profiling
giving some further input into the discussions on the European
data protection reform."
United Nations: Report of the Special Rapporteur on the human
rights of migrants, François Crépeau: Regional
study: management of the external borders of the European Union
and its impact on the human rights of migrants (pdf)
"The Special Rapporteur dedicated the first full year of his mandate to a study on the management of the external border of the European Union, and its impact on the human rights of migrants. He held consultations with the European Union in Brussels, and carried out visits to countries on both sides of the European Union’s external border: Greece, Italy, Tunisia and Turkey. While welcoming the inclusion of migrants’ rights in the policy framework, the Special Rapporteur remains concerned that the protection of the human rights of migrants, and in particular irregular migrants, is often not implemented on the ground. The report further addresses challenges in relation to the securitization of migration and border control; the use of detention as a tool in border control; the externalization of border control; and insufficient responsibility-sharing with external border States."
See also: Press release: EU border management: "More attention must be given to the human rights of migrants" (link)
"The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, François Crépeau, today warned that the increasing competence of the European Union in the field of migration has not always been accompanied by a corresponding guarantee of rights for migrants themselves, and in particular irregular migrants."
EU: Council of the European Union: Rules
governing the treatment of confidential information by the European
Parliament
(9888/13, pdf)
EU: Council of the European Union: Draft
Council conclusions on fundamental rights and rule of law and
on the Commission 2012 Report on the Application of the Charter
of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (9614/13, pdf)
EU: Council of the European Union: Proposal
for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council
amending Regulation (EC) No 562/2006 in order to provide for
common rules on the temporary reintroduction of border control
at internal borders in exceptional circumstances - Revised draft
compromise text (9604/13, pdf)
"Delegations will find below a revised compromise text, taking into account the outcome of the informal trilogue which took place on 20 February 2013 and other informal meetings with the European Parliament and the Commission, as well as the meeting of JHA Counsellors on 15 May 2013 and the outcome of the contacts, at a high-level, of the Legal Services of the three institutions, following a suggestion from the high-level trilogue which took place on 18 December 2012."
EU: Justice and Home Affairs Council, 6-7 June 2013: advance
press release
(pdf) provisional
agenda
(pdf)
EU: Speech by Cecilia Malmström, EU Commissioner for Home
Affairs: The
rise of right-wing extremism in Europe (European Commission press release,
link)
"It is my intention to adopt a European Counter Violent Extremism Programme before the end of the year. This will include a mix of hands-on proposals for all levels and policy recommendations to be fed into the revision of the EU radicalisation strategy."
EU: EP
report hits bullseye on media freedom (New Europe, link)
"Earlier last week the European Parliament adopted a report drafted by Ms. Renate Weber on “standard setting for media freedom across the EU”. While most commentators –maybe simply influenced by the headline posted on the website of the EP- mainly mentioned a call to set-up an EU media freedom monitoring system, we see in this report a much wider, solid and remarkable piece of work which may be considered as a cornerstone for the future."
EU: Notes
on the Opinion of AG Cruz Villalón of 14 April 2013 in
the case of Demirkan C-221/11 (pdf) by Kees Groenendijk, emeritus
Professor of Sociology of Law at the University of Nijmegen.
Concerns whether Turkish recipients of services are required to have a short stay visa or whether the current EU visa requirement violates the standstill clause in the Additional Protocol to the Association Agreement with Turkey.
UK: Mass
surveillance wouldn't have saved the life of Drummer Rigby (Guardian, link) The
introduction of a communications data bill wouldn't have prevented
last week's shocking murder of Lee Rigby.
Statewatch News Digest: 29 May 2013 (62 items)
Private
security for Greece's immigrant detention centres (EnetEnglish, link)
EU: Meijers Committee: Note
on the Proposal for a Regulation establishing rules for the surveillance
of external sea borders in the context of operational cooperation
coordinated by Frontex (pdf)
"The Meijers
Committee is of the opinion that the proposal fails to deal with
several issues satisfactorily and recommends:
- in case of disembarkation in a third country, guarantees must
be included pertaining to the presence of legal advisors and
interpreters and the availability of a remedy before an independent
authority with suspensive effect;
- interception measures should be brought in conformity with
the provisions on entry conditions and refusals of entry in the
Schengen Borders Code;
- the relationship with the recast of the Asylum Procedures Directive
should be clarified;
- to align the interception competences in respect of vessels
found in the contiguous zone which have not previously entered
the territorial sea with those that apply to vessels found in
the high seas;
- to include the provisions of the proposal on search and rescue,
interception competences and fundamental rights in Annex VI of
the Borders Code, so that they will apply to all maritime controls."
USA: Obama
frames covert drone war as necessary evil (Bureau of Investigative
Journalism, link) Barack Obama has made it clear that the US
will continue with its controversial targeted killing programme.
In a major speech the US president also announced that he has
signed into force a new – and secret – rule book for
lethal action that provides ‘clear guidelines, oversight
and accountability’ for covert drone strikes.
Obama speech suggests possible expansion of drone killings (McClatchy, link) President Barack Obama on Thursday defended his administration’s use of drone strikes to kill terrorists as effective, lawful and “heavily constrained,” but he also appeared to be laying groundwork for an expansion of the controversial targeted killings.
Sweden: Riots
rock Sweden's immigrant suburbs for fourth night (USA Today, link)
"Suburbs of the Swedish capital were engulfed in a fourth night of rioting early Thursday in the country's worst civil unrest in years, leaving locals shaking their heads and wondering when calm would return to their usually tranquil city."
EU: Amnesty:
EU states guilty of racism, homophobia (euobserver link) Several EU countries
abuse the rights of migrants and ethnic minorities, while others
are not doing enough to combat homophobia, Amnesty International
has said. The British-based NGO named 24 EU states in its annual
report on rights abusers, published on 23 May (pdf)
Statewatch News Digest: 24 May 2013 (115 items)
MEPs
vote to exclude culture from trade talks with US (European Voice, link)
Police
swoop on the homeless taking sleeping bags and food parcels in
co-ordinated raids in Redbridge (Ilford Voice, link)
Germany/North Africa: German
police instructed Tunisia and Egypt on internet surveillance
prior to the Arab Spring
The German Federal Office of Criminal Investigation instructed the authorities of multiple North African and Middle Eastern countries in internet surveillance in the years running up to the Arab Spring, according to information released by the German government following questioning by Die Linke (Left Party) in April 2013. Training in Tunisia and Egypt occurred shortly before the revolts in those countries, where control of the internet played a key role in allowing the government to undermine the uprisings.
CALEA
II: Risks of wiretap modifications to endpoints (link) The FBI wants
Congress to require that voice, video, and text communication
tools be (re-)designed so that lawful wiretap orders can be executed
quickly and silently. Twenty computer scientists have issued
a report
criticising the plans (pdf)
USA: Government Accountability Office: Immigration
Enforcement - Preliminary Observations on the Department of Homeland
Security's Overstay Enforcement Efforts (pdf)
This testimony discusses GAO’s preliminary observations on DHS’s efforts since April 2011 to review potential overstay records for national security and public safety concerns, improve data on potential overstays and report overstay rates, and plan for a biometric exit system.
UK: "The
potential death of legal aid": lawyers protest against new
government proposals
As Big Ben chimed for 11 o'clock on the morning of Wednesday 22nd May, hundreds of protesters stood outside parliament and held one minute's silence to mark "the potential death of legal aid." These were the words of the speaker on stage, a representative of the London Criminal Courts Solicitors' Association (LCCSA). The crowd, largely made up of solicitors, barristers and others working in the criminal justice system, had come to make clear their opposition to new government proposals for "transforming legal aid" in criminal cases.
EU: EU
policy on irregular migration is "fundamentally at odds
with the human rights approach"
Last Thursday, the European Parliament's Human Rights Committee (DROI) heard from a number of speakers on the compliance of Frontex with its human rights responsibilities. A short video posted on the Parliament's website shows some of the key comments from the session, of which the most scathing came from a statement by François Crépeau, UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants.
Justice for Tivoli demonstration:
organised by Caribbean
Labour Solidarity on the third anniversary of the death of at least
73 Jamaican citizens to demand
an independent
international enquiry. Friday
24 May, 4.30-6.30 pm at the Jamaica High Commission in London.
EU: Statewatch
JHA archive now contains 7,705 documents
The archive contains bibliographic records and full-text documents on EU Justice and Home Affairs policy dating back to 1976 when the Trevi Group was set up (Trevi was ad hoc intergovernmental cooperation on Terrorism, Radicalism and Violence, and grew into formal European political cooperation in the former Third Pillar after the Maastricht Treaty). It has been created to allow researchers to chart the historical development of EU JHA policy. The EU's public register of Council documents only dates back to 2000 (with some documents from 1999) while the Commission's incomplete public register started in 2002.
Recent additions to the archive include:
Report from the Spanish delegation relating to migratory fluxes in the area of the Mediterranean (4 September 1996, pdf)
Compilations of replies to the questionnaire on Somalia (17 October 1996, pdf)
Draft report on the situation in Iraq (4 December 1996, pdf)
Sean
Rigg's death must be the catalyst for a reform in policing (Observer, link)
Northern Ireland: Committee on the Administration
of Justice (CAJ) publishes three guides on making rights accessible (link)
Guide 1 looks
at the Human Rights Act
Guide 2 looks at Stop and Search Powers
Guide 3 looks at Protesting and Parading
USA: EPIC
Urges Investigation, Files FOIA on DoJ Surveillance of Press (link)
The Electronic Privacy Information Center has filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel, seeking documents explaining the DOJ's legal authority to search the electronic communications of reporters.
Fears
of U.S. Mass Surveillance Spur Data Protection Proposals in Europe (Slate, link)
Police
spies' use of dead children's identities was common, MPs told (Guardian, link)
EU: State
guidelines for the exchange of undercover police officers revealed
Statewatch can today publish a template 'Memorandum of Understanding for the use of undercover officers' produced by the European Cooperation Group on Undercover Activities (ECG) in February 2004. It outlines the generic structure and issues to be covered in agreements for the cross-border deployment of undercover police officers. This includes the legal framework; objectives of the deployment; management of the operation; "hard criteria" such as how evidence may be given in court and whether carrying a firearm is permitted; and communication with superiors. While it may simply be coincidence, it is notable that Mark Kennedy's overseas activities began in the months following the agreement.
EU: Frontex: Upholding
the legitimacy of Frontex: European Parliamentary Oversight (isis europe report,
pdf)
"The activities of the EU border control agency, Frontex, have increasingly drawn the attention of the public, as it is sometimes portrayed as a threat to the EU core principles of democracy, transparency and human rights. This review highlights the need for an oversight mechanism, which may restore public faith in Frontex to legitimately carry out its duties in manner conducive to EU core values. The prevailing challenges to fulfilling this need are reviewed, along with the related activity of the European Parliament and the way forward for Frontex in accordance with the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. Conclusively, it is submitted that a greater level of European Parliamentary oversight as a means to improve transparency is a solution to the accountability issue linked to border control."
Caritas Europa comments on the second draft of the Joint Return Operation code of conduct (pdf)
"Caritas Europa welcomes the safeguards included in the draft code. Yet, the Human Rights clauses would be purely decorative without further strengthening the accountability mechanisms and clarification of the personal and material scope of the code. We have therefore provided some alternative language - based in particular on the Council of Europe Twenty Guidelines on Forced Return."
EU: Speech by Cecilia Malmström, EU Commissioner for Home
Affairs, at the 4th European Civil Protection Forum in Brussels:
The
Internal Security Dimension and Perspectives (pdf)
Identifies three areas to develop: a coordinated response capability; the assessment of threats and hazards to their potential impact; cooperation in areas such as CBRN [Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear] and critical infrastructure protection.
EU: EU
ministers urge Reding to do more for gay rights (euobserver, link) "Fourteen
member states on Thursday (16 May) backed a petition urging the
European Commission to do more for the rights of sexual minorities,
with the last major initiative several years ago."
EU LGBT Survey: Poll on homophobia sparks concern (BBC, link) "A quarter of gay people surveyed in a major EU poll say they have been subjected to attacks or violent threats in the past five years."
Survey shows widespread LGBT discrimination (Sarah Ludford, link) "A survey produced by Gallup Europe for the EU Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) to mark the forthcoming International Day Against Homophobia (May 17th) has revealed that almost half (47%) of the Lesbian, Gay, Transgender and Bisexual community in Europe has been personally discriminated against or harassed on the grounds of their sexual orientation."
EU: Council of the European Union: Preparation
of the Schengen evaluation in 2013 - Programmes, participants,
technical details - an overview (5147/13, pdf) "Delegations will
find enclosed an overview of programmes, participants, technical
details of each evaluation mission in the framework of the Schengen
evaluation in 2013."
EU: Council of the European Union: Draft
Council Conclusions calling for an update of the EU Strategy
for Combating Radicalisation and Recruitment to Terrorism (9447/13, pdf) "Coreper
is requested to invite the Council to agree on the conclusions
as set out in Annex."
Greece:
Emergency action to thwart teachers’ strike unnecessary (Amnesty International,
link)
Northern Ireland: G8: New laws will
allow government to shut down mobile phone network as security
preparations step up a gear
As the G8 summit in Enniskillen in Northern Ireland draws nearer, it seems that the security operation surrounding the event will be even more stringent than those that normally accompany international political summits.
EU: Council of the European Union v Access Info Europe: Opinion
of Advocate General Cruz Villalón (link)
"In the
light of the foregoing considerations, I propose that the Court
should:
(1) Dismiss the appeal;
(2) Order the Council to pay the costs."
Thousands
demonstrate against freedom of information act (Copenhagen post, link)
Justice
Department seizes journalists' call records (ifex, link)
EU: Implementing
the "solidarity clause": EU secret service to be reinforced?
The "solidarity clause", known more formally as Article 222 of the Lisbon Treaty, regulates the use of police, secret service and military means in case of a crisis within the EU. The EU Commission and the EU High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy issued a proposal in December for the legal implementation of the clause.
UK: Jimmy
Mubenga inquest: he was asking for help and did not get it, wife
says
(Guardian, link)
Mubenga, who was being deported to Angola, died on a plane at Heathrow airport after being restrained by security guards.
Statement of Adrienne Makenda Kambana, wife of Jimmy Mubenga (pdf)
UK: Government
talks to give Met Police water cannons (Scotsman, link)
"The Metropolitan Police wants to use two German-made water cannon vehicles, each capable of holding 9,000 litres of water...It is understood that the Met had hoped to have the vehicles by next month in case disorder arises from protests planned for London before the G8 summit in Northern Ireland."
UK: Pavement
justice: On-the-spot fines & the rule of law (The Justice Gap, link)
"On-the-spot fines have become the ‘penalty of choice’ for a range of public bodies - including police forces fining people for criminal offences, schools fining children for truancy, or local authorities fining people for unlicensed leafleting or dropping a cigarette butt. This is a shady and lawless area, lying on the one hand between the formal system of criminal justice and the court trial, and on the other, between administrative penalties such as parking fines, which have their own forms of regulation and appeal. There is urgent need for reform."
See also: "Belgian ‘municipal fines’ cause growing dissent" article in new Statewatch Journal
Spain: Open Access Now: Access
to the Detention centers for foreigners (CIE) of Aluche (Madrid)
denied for NGOs and journalists as part of a delegation with
Members of the European Parliament (link)
"The denial and the willingness of the government to limit access to only three MEPs and one parliamentarian of Madrid demonstrate the opacity surrounding the functioning of detention centers, repeatedly denounced by civil society, but also by international organizations and national institutions such as the Ombudsman, the Attorney General and the Committee for the Prevention of Torture. This opacity promotes the violation of the rights of detainees in these centers as these authorities, agencies and organisations have already shown and make them incompatible with democracy and the rule of law."
Statewatch News Digest: 15 May 2013 (97 items)
Big
data: a big opportunity or just big brother? (Guardian, link)
Europe
must combat racist extremism and uphold human rights (Human Rights Comment,
link)
Canada: Troubling
new anti-terror provisions pass into law (Muslim Link, link)
"In what some critics called an opportunistic move, the Harper government swiftly scheduled debate on, and passed, new anti-terrorism provisions (Bill S-7) in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombing and the subsequent Canadian arrests of two men alleged to be involved in a plot against VIA Rail.
The most controversial of the provisions - involving preventive arrests (detention without charge for up to three days, followed by release under draconian bail conditions) and secretive investigative hearings, both part of the original Anti-Terrorism Act in 2001 - expired after five years due to a sunset clause. The federal Liberals, who joined with other opposition parties to reject an attempt to revive the provisions in 2007, voted in favour of S-7 under leader Justin Trudeau."
EU: Access Info Europe: New
Guide on Access to EU Documents (link)
"The EU has recognised a fundamental right of access to EU documents, but the EU's freedom of information law - which goes by the catchy title of 'Regulation 1049/2001' - remains underused by the population at large. The new guide demystifies the process of asking for EU documents explaining step by step how to make a request."
Greeks
banned from striking under emergency law (EurActiv, link)
EU: Field
testing: CLOSEYE project puts drones over the Mediterranean
A multi-million euro border control project was launched in Spain at the end of April that will see drones, satellites and aerostats deployed over the southern Mediterranean in an attempt to provide the EU "with an operational and technical framework that increases situational awareness and improves the reaction capability of authorities surveying the external borders of the EU." [1]
EU: European
Parliament resolution on the impact of the financial and economic
crisis on human rights (pdf)
See: New Statewatch Journal: "Austerity, Civil Liberties & Democracy"
Sweden: We
need to end racism now - period (Institute of Race Relations, link)
A member of the Swedish anti-racist magazine MANA reflects on
the challenges posed by Operation REVA.
UK: Queen's
speech revives 'snooper's charter' legislation (Guardian, link) The
government appears to have left open the door to the resurrection
of the controversial "snooper's charter" bill to track
everyone's email, internet and mobile text use.
G8:
NI prison block 'set aside' in case of trouble (BBC, link)
Queen's
Speech: End of Asbos as police forced to act on yobs (Telegraph, link)
UK: Tests
near completion on new police weapon
On top of CS gas, rubber bullets and Tasers, another "less lethal weapon" that received renewed interest following the August 2011 riots is now in "the late stages of Home Office testing", according to a report in Police Oracle magazine. The Discriminating Irritant Projectile (DIP) can be fired up to 40 metres from a baton gun and releases a cloud of CS (tear gas) particles on impact.
From
Countering Financial Crime to Criminalizing Civil Society: How
the FATF Overstepped the Mark (Open Society Foundations, link)
"A powerful yet unaccountable global standard–setting body is helping repressive civil society regulations to spread and flourish across the globe. Ben Hayes lifts the lid on the Financial Action Task Force."
Italy: Hearings
into abuse at G8 barracks start (Gazzetta del Sud, link)
"Protesters were subjected to "violence and abuse" and "unspeakable behaviour" while being held at a police detention centre in the Bolzaneto barracks during the 2001 Group of Eight (G8) summit in Genoa, a prosecutor said Wednesday. During the first day of proceedings before Italy's top court, Joseph Volpe asked the Court of Cassazione to uphold sentences against 44 defendants held to be civilly responsible for violence against protesters between July 20 and 22, 2001."
See also: Statewatch analysis: Ten years after the G8 Summit in Genoa by Salvatore Palidda, Genoa University (pdf)
INTERPOL: Police
information collection and exchange mechanisms across West Africa
focus of INTERPOL workshop (link)
Defining national mechanisms and procedures for collecting and exchanging police information for the development of national automated police databases was the focus of the fourth INTERPOL West African Police Information System workshop.
See also: Millions of euros for new police databases in West Africa
EU-USA: "Leaked"
Commission EU Negotiating Mandate on EU-USA Trade Agreement (link) Apart from anything
else, this presents possible problems for data protection.
EU: EU
police agencies reject cost-cutting merger (euobserver, link)
"The European police college Cepol and the EU police agency Europol both formally rejected on Tuesday (7 May) a proposal by the European Commission to merge the two in a cost cutting measure."
"First and foremost, the legal viability is not established. The financial benefits described are not substantiated and the costs of the proposal are inadequately quantified. The proposed governance would seem to be more costly and not in accordance with the requirement to streamline the governance of agencies. Key operational factors such as the likely loss of expertise and Member State engagement are not considered. The use of outdated information and the consequent disregard of more recent data and performance indicators do not provide a sound basis for consideration of the proposal."
EU: European Parliament: Civil
Liberties Committee [LIBE] makes it easier to confiscate crooks'
assets EU wide (press release, pdf)
"Draft rules to make it easier for national authorities to freeze and confiscate criminals' assets across the EU were beefed up by the Civil Liberties Committee on Tuesday. However, MEPs also sought to safeguard the right to a fair trial. They also called upon member states to use confiscated assets to fight crime and for social projects. The draft law, which must still be negotiated with national governments, is part of a broader EU strategy to fight fraud and corruption."
EU
to extend welfare rights, despite UK warning (euobserver, link)
Danish
phone company kept call records for more than 10 years (EDRi, link)
New
claims of racism against Met police (channel4, link)
Statewatch
Journal (volume 23 no 1) now available to download
The Statewatch Journal has been redesigned and each issue will now have a thematic focus. This issue looks at the nexus between austerity, democracy and civil liberties in Europe.
Statewatch News Digest: 7 May 2013 (66 items)
Xenophobic
murder trial begins in Germany (euractiv, link)
Terrorism
and “Intelligence-led policing”: the German Constitutional
Court draws its “red lines” (EAFSJ, link)
Europe's
prisons at breaking point due to overcrowding (public service europe,
link)
EU
court needs more judges, say UK Lords (public service europe, link)
EU: Meijers
Committee note to the European Parliament on the Smart Borders
proposals
(pdf)
The Meijers Committee advises the members of the European Parliament to vote against the Smart Borders proposals and expresses deep concerns with respect to the:
- proportionality
and practical feasibility of the proposals;
- coherence of the proposals with existing databases;
- applicable standards of data protection for the data subjects;
- conditions for transmission of personal data to third countries;
- broad discretion as regards the issuing of the registered traveler
status;
- proposed amendments in the Schengen Borders Code;
- possible access to the Entry/Exit System for law enforcement
purposes.
Smart Borders
proposals:
Proposal
for a Regulation establishing an Entry/Exit System (COM 2013 95, pdf)
Proposal
for a Regulation amending Regulation (EC) No 562/2006
(COM 2013 96, pdf)
Proposal
for a Regulation establishing Registered Traveller Programme
(COM 2013 97, pdf)
See also: Borderline: The EU's New Border Surveillance Initiatives: Assessing the Costs and Fundamental Rights Implications of EUROSUR and the "Smart Borders" Proposals (pdf) A study by the Heinrich Böll Foundation written by Ben Hayes and Mathias Vermeulen.
EU: Council of Europe: Outcome
report for Eurojust/Academy of European Law (ERA) conference
"10 years of Eurojust - operational achievements and future
challenges", The Hague, 12-13 November 2012 (8862/13, pdf)
"Introductory remarks were followed by five sessions devoted to specific topics. General conclusions on future perspectives closed the Conference. This report is intended to reflect the main points of the presentations delivered by the numerous speakers taking part in the event..."
EU: Council of Europe:
Draft Council Conclusions on strengthening the internal security
authorities' involvement in security-related research and industrial
policy
(8985/13, pdf) "Coreper is requested to invite the Council
to adopt the draft Council conclusions as set out in annex."
See also: EU: Crystal balls: internal security authorities want "technology foresight"
EU: Council of Europe: DAPIX: Draft
Council Conclusions following the Commission Communication on
the European Information Exchange Model (7226/2/13, pdf)
"The Presidency submits herewith draft Council Conclusions on enhancing efficient cross-border information exchange in the area of law enforcement information."
EU: Council of Europe: EMCDDA-Europol
2012 Annual Report on the implementation of Council Decision
2005/387/JHA
(8997/13, pdf)
"This report presents the activities implemented by the EMCDDA [European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction] and Europol in 2012 in support of Council Decision 2005/387/JHA on the information exchange, risk assessment and control of new psychoactive substances."
Hungary
Restricts FOI Law; OGP Membership Questioned (freedominfo, link)
Golden
Dawn MP 'swung at mayor of Athens but hit 12-year-old girl instead' (Guardian, link)
Heart
of the matter: who owns your health data? (euobserver, link)
EU: Council of the European Union: Data protection: Proposal
for a Regulation on the protection of individuals with regard
to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of
such data (General Data Protection Regulation) - Specific issues (8825/13, pdf)
"This package
comprises two legislative proposals based on Article 16 TFEU,
the new legal basis for data protection measures introduced by
the Lisbon Treaty...The following items are submitted to COREPER
for consideration:
- Material scope
- Territorial scope
- Definition of consent
- Data processing principles
- Freedom of expression and access to public documents."
UK: Institute of Race Relations: This
week, we publish a briefing paper on the future of human rights
in Britain, written by the IRR’s vice-chair, Frances Webber (press release, link)
"With nativism, racism and fascism on the rise throughout Europe, informing government policies towards migrants and other unpopular minorities as well as popular right-wing, anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim and anti-Roma movements, the European system of human rights is vital. But, since taking office in September 2012, Conservative justice minister Chris Grayling has made no secret of his desire to get rid of the Human Rights Act and to ‘dramatically curtail’ the role of the European Court of Human Rights Act in the UK."
EU: Is
this what democracy looks like? Claiming democratic control over
EU trade and investment policy-making (Alternative Trade Mandate working paper,
pdf)
"As part of the Alternative Trade Mandate Alliance1, a working group2 has drafted the following paper, which addresses firstly, what we see as the problems with the EU’s trade and investment policy-making process as it is now, and secondly, our vision for what a transparent, democratic and accountable alternative to this process could look like."
EU: Data Retention Directive: Request
for a preliminary ruling from Austria lodged on 28 January 2013 (Case C-64/13, pdf)
EU: Council of the European Union: European Crime Prevention
Network: Annual
Report of Activities in 2012 (7064/13, pdf) Work
Programme 2013 (7065/13, pdf)
EU: Data protection: Interoperable
police systems could be unlawfully accessed, warns EU privacy
body
(Out-law, link) European
Data Protection Supervisor opinion on the European Information
Exchange Model (full text, pdf)
"European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) Peter Hustinx, who advises EU bodies on data privacy issues, said that making systems interoperable with one another could lead to police databases being used for different purposes for which they were originally established. This would run counter to EU data protection laws, he said."
Background:
EU: Commission rules out new law enforcement databases - but seeks more data for Europol
Increasing Resilience in Surveillance Societies (IRISS): Call
for contributions (pdf)
"IRISS is a European Commission funded research project involving 16 universities throughout Europe that seeks to question the impact of surveillance. The project aims to better understand attitudes toward surveillance and monitoring in contemporary Europe...We would like to hear some of your views on how surveillance may impact on your everyday life and how you feel about that."
EU: The
EP Committee rejects the proposal for a European passenger name
record system
(EAFSJ blog, link)
"The LIBE negative vote, even if expected, has created some concerns on the Commission side. However Commissioner Cecilia Malmström still believes that a solution can be found before the plenary vote since “it is the only way of avoiding the fragmentation of PNR systems and of effectively protecting personal data.” In the coming weeks it will be clear if the Commissioner position is well founded or if supplementary work will be needed or a final negative vote will close the procedure"
Italy: Ex-police
in Genoa G8 beatings assigned social work (Gazzetta del Sud, link)
"Three policemen found guilty by Italy's highest appeals
court in 2012 of grievous misconduct for beatings at the 2001
G8 summit in Genoa have been assigned social-service duties by
a tribunal in the northern Italian port city."
Germany: German
police hope to use new spyware (Deutsche Welle, link) "German
investigators are hoping to gain greater access to telecommunications
data in order to combat terrorism. But there is controversy over
the spyware they want to use to keep tabs on private computers."
See also: German surveillance is used against dissidents (Deutsche Welle, link) and Statewatch analysis: State Trojans: Germany exports "spyware with a badge" (pdf)
April 2013
EU: Aerial
surveillance at the Greece-Turkey border: Frontex wants to buy
a plane
The EU border agency, Frontex, is looking to buy a plane that will allow it to undertake night-time surveillance of the land border between Greece and Turkey as part of a pilot project that will run from July until September. Aerial surveillance imagery will be used to guide the actions of border guards stationed on the ground, in a region where intensified border controls have already led to the death of migrants attempting to reach Europe by increasingly dangerous routes.
EU: Council of the European Union: Proposal
for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council
on conditions of entry and residence of third-country nationals
in the framework of an intra-corporate transfer (8973/13, pdf) Four
column table ahead of the meeting of Justice and Home Affairs
Counsellors on 7 May 2013.
EU: Council of the European Union: Draft
Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing
the European Border Surveillance System (EUROSUR, 8944/13, pdf) The latest four-column
table with Presidency drafting suggestions and comments on the
different issues discussed so far with the European Parliament.
The final trilogue with the EP is scheduled to take place on
29 May 2013.
EU: Council
of Europe anti-torture Committee publishes two reports on Spain (press release, link)
The Council of Europe's Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) has today published the report on its sixth periodic visit to Spain, which took place in May-June 2011. It has also published the report on its follow-up visit to Barcelona Prison for Men (La Modelo) carried out in June 2012. Both reports have been published at the request of the Spanish authorities, together with their responses.
Statewatch News Digest: 30 April 2013 (71 items)
Council
of Europe turns up the heat on Hungary (Euractiv, link)
State of Civil Society report 2013: How international
rules on countering the financing of terrorism impact civil society (by Ben Hayes, link)
"This chapter describes some of the ways in which the work of civil society organisations continues to be constrained by the global CFT [countering the financing of terrorism] framework. Although many of these effects may be described as unintended consequences, they are also the outcome of a culture of suspicion in which links between charities and terrorist organisations have been exaggerated while measures to protect freedom of association and expression have been disregarded."
See also: Full report (pdf)
EU: Article 29 data protection working party documents:
Explanatory Document on the Processor Binding Corporate Rules (00658/13, pdf)
EU: Council of the European Union: European
Police College (CEPOL) Annual Report for the year 2012 (8890/13, pdf)
UK: Armed
drones operated from RAF base in UK, says MoD (BBC, link) Armed
drone aircraft have been operated remotely from Britain for the
first time, the Ministry of Defence has said...The drones are
mainly used for surveillance, but could use weapons if commanded
to by their pilots in the UK.
EU: EU
needs to stop multinationals 'blacklisting' workers (Public Service Europe,
link) Corporations operating in the UK, France, Ireland and
Sweden have been accused of 'blacklisting' so it is time for
the EU to legislate to outlaw the practice - says MEP
EU: EURODAC: Asylum
seeker database plan shows EU's hypocrisy on human rights (Public Service Europe,
link) Plans to routinely share asylum seeker data - including
finger prints - with police is a 'breach of EU law' but the proposal
is a fait accompli - says MEP.
EU: Joint Supervisory Body of Europol: Implementation
of the Terrorist Finance Tracking Program (TFTP) Agreement: assessment
of the follow-up of the JSB recommendations (pdf)
“There is a clear tension between the idea of limiting the amount of data to be transmitted by tailoring and narrowing the requests and the nature of the TFTP...These are political issues and it is up to the legislators to balance the transfer of massive data sets - mostly of non-suspects - with proportionality”
EU: Council of the European Union: Fifth
Activity Report of the Joint Supervisory Body of Europol, October
2008 - October 2012 (8659/13, pdf) The Joint Supervisory Body is
an independent body established to ensure the protection of citizens'
data protection rights in relation to Europol's storage, processing
and use of personal data.
EU: Report
from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council
on the development of the Visa Information System (VIS) in 2012 (COM 232 2013, pdf)
This is the ninth and final Commission report on the development
of the Visa Information System and covers the work carried out
by the Commission between January and December 2012.
UK: Britain
and Germany join forces to demand curb on the 'burden' of benefits
tourists that put 'considerable strain' on schools, healthcare
and welfare
(Daily Mail, link)
"The countries sent a joint letter to the Council of the European Union, arguing that the free movement directive – a founding principle of the EU – must not be ‘unconditional’. The letter...calls for action at a meeting of the EU’s justice and home affairs council in June."
Update: Full text of letter from Austria, Netherland, Germany and UK governments to the EU Council Presidency (pdf)
EU: European Parliament: Formal oral questions by the Committee
on Civil Liberties (LIBE) regarding the Stockholm Programme and
access to documents to be answered in the plenary session by
the Council (pdf) and Commission (pdf)
Migrants
storm Spain border from Morocco: government (Expatica, link)
Commission
doubtful over 'benefits tourism' claims (Euractiv, link)
UK: Thousands
more Tasers issued to police in London
Police in London are being armed with an increasing number of "less lethal" weapons. Taser guns - electroshock weapons that deliver up to 1,200 volts into the body through metal probes that pierce the skin - are being made available to hundreds more police officers, leading to growing unease amongst politicians and the public. Concerns are being raised over the necessity and likely effectiveness of an increase in the use of the electroshock weapons, and an attempt is underway to have the legality of the decision-making process behind Taser use assessed by the courts.
EU: European
police to gain access to visa database
Europol and national law enforcement authorities look likely to obtain access to asylum seekers' and irregular migrants' fingerprints held in the Eurodac database, following approval from the European Parliament's Civil Liberties Committee.
Europe's law enforcement databases are developing swiftly. The move to give police forces across Europe across to the VIS - which can hold up to 70 million records - coincides not just with the agreement between the Parliament and the Council on law enforcement access to the Eurodac database, but also with the launch of the Schengen Information System II, which became fully operational at the beginning of April.
See also: European Parliament: MEPs back deal with Council on police access to asylum seekers’ fingerprints (press release, pdf)
EU: Europol: EU
terrorism situation and trend report 2013 (pdf)
"The TE-SAT is one of Europol’s most significant strategic analysis products. It offers law enforcement officials, policymakers and the general public facts and figures regarding terrorism in the EU while, at the same time, seeking to identify developing trends in this phenomenon. It is a public document produced annually and is based on information provided and verified by the competent authorities of the EU Member States."
See also: Rise in terrorist attacks in Europe in 2012 (Europol website, link)
EU: Council of the European Union: Initiative
for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council
regarding the European Investigation Order in criminal matters
- Text suggestions in view of the trilogue on 14 May 2013 (8754/13, pdf)
"In view of the "Friends of the Presidency" Group meeting on 30 April 2013, and on the basis of the delegations' comments and the reaction of the EP at the trilogue on 16 April as well as the technical meeting on 17 April 2013, the Presidency is has [sic] amended the text."
EU: Council of the European Union: Preparation
of the upcoming end of the five year transitional period provided
for in Article 10(1) to (3) of Protocol 36 on transitional provisions
- Introductory note (8878/13, pdf)
EU: Council of the European Union: Draft
Council conclusions on the Commission and the High Representative
of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy
Joint Communication on the Cybersecurity Strategy of the European
Union: An Open, Safe and Secure Cyberspace (8767/13, pdf)
Racially
motivated attacks on the rise in Greece, human rights groups
say
(Guardian, link)
Massive
personal data breach by police to G4S (Cambridge News, link)
UK: Nick
Clegg kills off Tory hopes of swift deal on revised 'snooper's
charter'
(Guardian, link)
Nick Clegg has vetoed Theresa May's rewritten "web snooper's charter" plan, killing off the home secretary's last remaining hopes of getting any communications data legislation in the Queen's speech. The Liberal Democrat leader told David Cameron and Theresa May on Wednesday that he could not support the home secretary's latest proposals to monitor internet and social media use because they were unworkable and disproportionate.
See also: The "Snoopers' Charter" is dead... (Privacy International, link)
Statewatch analysis: “If
at first you don’t succeed”… European Commission
proposes new rules on interception and disembarkation during
Frontex sea operations (pdf)
On 12 April 2013, the European Commission submitted a draft regulation establishing rules for sea border surveillance in the context of operations coordinated by Frontex. This proposal follows an ECJ (Court of Justice of the European Union) ruling in September 2012 which annulled the earlier Decision 2010/252 on the same matter after the European Parliament challenged the validity of the procedure adopted to pass the Decision.
EU: European Parliament: Civil
Liberties Committee rejects EU Passenger Name Record proposal (press release, link)
A European Commission
proposal to allow the use of EU air passenger name record (PNR)
data in investigating serious crime and terrorist offences was
rejected by Civil Liberties Committee MEPs Wednesday, by 30 votes
to 25. MEPs
vote down air passenger data scheme (euobserver, link)
EU: Council
of Europe anti-torture Committee publishes report on Portugal (press release, link)
Full
report
(pdf)
"In the course of the 2012 visit, the CPT’s delegation examined the treatment of persons deprived of their liberty by law enforcement agencies and of the safeguards against ill-treatment in place. The report on the visit highlights several cases of alleged ill-treatment and stresses the importance of the authorities carrying out effective investigations into such allegations. Further, the report makes recommendations about the right of detained persons to have access to a lawyer (including the right to talk to a lawyer in private), to notify their detention to a third party and to be informed of their rights."
Statewatch analysis: Secrecy
reigns at the EU’s Intelligence Analysis Centre (pdf)
The Centre's reports are widely distributed within the EU and have a direct bearing on political decision-making despite an alarming lack of operational transparency and democratic accountability.
See also: European Parliament: EEAS could do much better, say MEPs in first major review (press release, link) Draft Report with a proposal for a European Parliament recommendation to the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice President of the European Commission, to the Council and to the Commission on the 2013 review of the organisation and the functioning of the EEAS (pdf)
UK: House of Lords European Union Committee: EU
police and criminal justice measures: The UK’s 2014 opt-out
decision
(pdf)
"On the basis of the evidence we have received we do not consider that the Government have made a convincing case for exercising the opt-out. We are not persuaded by the arguments in favour of exercising the opt-out which some witnesses have made, and we find that the evidence supports the reasoning of those opposed to its exercise. Opting out of the police and criminal justice measures would have significant adverse negative repercussions for the internal security of the United Kingdom and the administration of criminal justice in the United Kingdom.
We do not believe that any possible alternative arrangements, which would involve a great deal of work to conceive, would be worth it simply to avoid the jurisdiction of the CJEU, which we do not believe poses an objective threat and whose jurisdiction in this area cannot be completely excluded in any event."
See also: EU crime optouts 'could damage UK crime fighting' (BBC, link)
EU: Justicia European Rights Network: NGO
Joint briefing on the Directive on the right of access to a lawyer
in criminal proceedings and the right to inform a third party
upon deprivation of liberty (22 April 2013, pdf)
"After eight months of intensive discussions, the two legislators, the European Parliament (EP) and the Council of the European Union, appear willing to conclude the negotiation of a new Directive that will set common minimum standards on the right of access to a lawyer and the right to communicate with third parties when detained, for persons suspected or accused of a crime in the EU.
Ahead of the next trilogue on 17 April 2013, we welcome the positive developments on a number of contentious points but wish to raise five remaining concerns that we believe deserve special attention from the co-legislators at this critical juncture in the negotiations, to ensure the Directive does not undermine human rights standards."
EU: Jesuit Refugee Service: Frontex
must improve human rights performance (link) JRS joins the EU Ombudsman in
calling upon Frontex to develop effective procedures to ensure
that human rights are upheld at the borders.
Statewatch News Digest: 23 April 2013 (72 items)
German
President Joachim Gauck: 'Never economise on human rights' (Council of Europe, link)
Statewatch analysis: Expulsion
of Roma: the French government’s broken promise
Hopes that the Socialist Party's May 2012 electoral victory would lead to substantive changes in the treatment of Roma have faded quickly amid continued forced evictions and collective expulsions.
Greece: 3
Greeks Held in Shooting of 28 Migrant Workers (New York Times, link)
Three foremen of a strawberry farm in the southern Peloponnese
region of Greece have been arrested, police officials said. They
are accused of having opened fire with shotguns on a crowd of
around 200 fruit pickers after a dispute about six months’
pay.
Statewatch analysis: Perfidious
Albion: Cover-up and collusion in Northern Ireland (pdf), by Paddy Hillyard
The British government's dealings in Ireland have long been characterised by cover-ups, deceit and perfidiousness. This includes collaboration between British security forces and loyalist paramilitaries, the obstruction of legal investigations, the refusal to hold public enquiries, and the introduction of a new form of intelligence-led policing which, in many cases, allowed informers to act with impunity.
EU: Council of the European Union: Initiative
for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council
regarding the European Investigation Order in criminal matters
- Comparative table with amendments proposals by EP and Presidency
suggestions
(7805/13, pdf) The latest four-column text. The Council is not
offering very much to meet the European Parliament's position,
particularly on covert investigations and telephone tapping.
The latest trilogue was 16 April, the last one has been set for
7 May.
EU: Migreurop press release: Launch
of the campaign of parliamentary visits in migrant detention
centers
(link) Over the last decade or so, European asylum and immigration
policies have led to a rise of the number of migrant detention
centers. A round table will be organised on Wednesday the 24th
of April 2013 from 1pm to 2.30pm at the European Parliament of
Brussels (room PHS 1 C 51). Journalists, MPs and representatives
of organizations will testify about their experiences during
their visits in detention centers. Meeting
programme
(pdf)
EU: Council of the European Union: Proposal
for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council
establishing the European Border Surveillance System (EUROSUR, 8086/13, pdf)
The latest four-column text. Lots of compromises have been agreed
or proposed.The next trilogue with the European Parliament is
on 22 April.
'Like
1930s Germany': Greek Far Right Gains Ground (spiegel online, link)
The EU is contributing over €3.3 million to a project which aims to give European security forces a way to ensure the "safe control and stopping at a distance of non-cooperative vehicles" on land and at sea through devices that make use of high power microwaves and electromagnetic pulses.
EU: European Ombudsman makes 13 recommendations to Frontex to
strengthen its fundamental rights strategy: Draft
recommendation and accompanying
letter to the Executive Director of Frontex (pdfs)
The recommendation draws on analyses and suggestions by civil society organisations and individuals, including a joint submission by Statewatch and Migreurop.
According to the Ombudsman: “The main concern is that the [Fundamental Rights] Strategy does not clarify Frontex's responsibility for possible infringements of fundamental rights which occur in the course of its operations” and that “the Strategy does not refer at all to the protection of personal data of intercepted migrants.”
In September 2012, a Statewatch and Migreurop analysis stated: “The fundamental rights strategy as it was presented by Frontex … is inadequate. Safeguards and reporting mechanisms appear insufficient compared to Frontex’s involvement and responsibilities in the initiation, coordination and conduct of border control at the EU’s external borders. The absence of any redress mechanism for potential victims of human rights violations and the denial by Frontex of any direct responsibility if cases of violations were to be found reflect a disturbing misrepresentation of the Agency’s mandate under the revised Regulation 2004/2007”.
EU: Council of the European Union: Commissioner for Human Rights:
Greece
must curb hate crime and combat impunity (press release, link)
Full
report
(pdf) “Democracy in Greece is seriously threatened by the
upsurge of hate crime and a weak state response. Sustained and
concerted action, notably by the police and the courts, is necessary
to protect the rule of law and human rights in the country”
said today Nils Muižnieks, Council of Europe Commissioner
for Human Rights, publishing a report based on the findings of
his visit to Greece from 28 January to 1 February 2013.
EU: Council of the European Union: Proposal
for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council
on conditions of entry and residence of third-country nationals
in the framework of an intra-corporate transfer (8303/13, pdf) The latest
four-column text.
EU: Council of the European Union: Smart
Borders Package (8018/13, pdf) The aim of the 'Smart Borders
Package' is to simplify life for frequent third country travellers
at the EU's external borders, enhance EU security and contribute
to better monitoring of border crossings.
EU: Article
29 Data Protection Working Party: Opinion 03/2013 on purpose
limitation
(00569/13, pdf) Purpose limitation protects data subjects by
setting limits on how data controllers are able to use their
data while also offering some degree of flexibility for data
controllers. This Opinion provides guidance for the principle's
practical application under the current legal framework, and
formulates policy recommendations for the future.
EU: Council of the European Union: Working Party on Sport: Draft
Council Decision Authorising the European Commission to participate,
on behalf of the EU, in the negotiations for an international
convention of the Council of Europe to combat the manipulation
of sports results (8346/13, pdf) and the
manipulation of sports results as regards matters related to
cooperation in criminal matters and police cooperation (8317/13, pdf)
The
anti-terrorist exercise will be the biggest at EU level (neweurope online, link)
EU: EU
men with guns: a comedy of errors (euobserver, link) Catherine Ashton's
EU foreign service recently gave its biggest security contract
to a company with a dubious track record. Then they took it away
again, posing questions on the professionalism of her staff.
Greece: Detention
of irregular migrants and asylum seekers (Aitima NGO, pdf) Hundreds
of detainees protest for their detention by going on hunger strikes
and there is information about suicide attempts that have occurred
in detention centers.
Bulgaria: Access
to Information in Bulgaria 2012 (pdf) The report was presented on 28
March 2013 at a press conference in the Bulgarian News Agency.
EU: Dublin III: Council of the European Union: Position
of the Council at first reading with a view to the adoption of
a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council 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) - common guidelines (15605/12, pdf)
There was a deal between the European Parliament and the Council on the Dublin III Regulation last autumn, and the legislation was due to be adopted in December. However, this was delayed so that all the remaining asylum legislation could be adopted at the same time. There was a deal on the remaining asylum legislation just before Easter, so all the measures will probably be adopted officially in June, although this timing is not yet certain. The Regulation will apply six months after adoption, so probably from December 2013.
EU: Agency for Fundamental Rights report: Fundamental
rights at the EU’s southern sea borders: Deficiencies, promising
practices and challenges (press release, link) Full
report
(pdf)
EU: European Commission: Proposal
for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council
establishing rules for the surveillance of the external sea borders
in the context of operational cooperation coordinated by the
European Agency for the Management of Operational Cooperation
at the External Borders of the Members States of the European
Union
(COM 2013 197, pdf) The Commission has made its new proposal
to replace the measure which the Court of Justice annulled in
September.
See also: Statewatch analysis: Criticism of Frontex’s operations at sea mounts (November 2012)
Statewatch News Digest: 9 April 2013 (67 items)
In late January, Conservative MP and Minister for Security James Brokenshire led a delegation of nearly 25 "homeland security" firms to India on a trip which, in sharp contrast to the trade mission to India undertaken by David Cameron in February, received no coverage in the press whatsoever.
Greece: Statewatch
visit to the Pikpa Centre for asylum-seekers in Mytilene
We visited the Pikpa Centre in early April 2013, an open facility run by volunteers in a building provided by the municipality. A significant number of the people in Pikpa today have been there for 17 or 18 days, not knowing if they will ever see a lawyer, be able to claim asylum, or move out of the Centre.
EU: EU
military spending is 'elephant in the room' and key factor in
European debt crisis, argues new report (TNI press release, link) Full
report
(pdf) At a time of harsh cuts in social services, it is morally
unjustifiable to spend money on weapons that should be invested
in creating jobs and tackling poverty. High levels of military
spending played a key role in the unfolding European economic
crisis and continues to undermine efforts to resolve it, alleges
a new report by Transnational Institute and the Dutch Campaign
against the Arms Trade.
UK: ‘May
we bring harmony’? Thatcher’s legacy on ‘race’
- Cameron’s nativist policies begin with Thatcher (IRR website, link)
Thatcher’s New Right established what is today a commonsense
nativism - which has stripped the political culture of group
rights, internationalism, and history. It paved the way for Cameron’s
landmark ‘multiculturalism has failed’ speech of 2011
and Michael Gove’s whitening of the history curriculum,
and the much more general acceptance of views, ranging from those
of Andrew Green and Christopher Caldwell to David Goodhart, that
the nation is under threat from cultural pluralism ie immigrants
and we need a more assertive integration policy ie assimilation.
Europe's
forced returnees claim abuse (IRIN, link)
Ban
on London Met University enrolling foreign students lifted (Guardian, link)
Discussions on allowing Bulgaria and Romania to join the Schengen area of border-free travel may have been postponed until December, but the EU's law enforcement authorities will soon start benefitting from easier access to fingerprint and vehicle registration data from the two countries as they move towards fully implementing the Prüm Decisions.
EU: Irish
Presidency reaches breakthrough agreement on re-use of Public
Sector Information (link) Public Sector Information refers to the
wide variety of information held by Public bodies, ranging from
demographic and economic data to historical documents or works
of art. See also: Commission press release: Commission
welcomes Member States' endorsement of EU Open Data rules (link)
Ireland: Self-regulation:
Irish police database - “some sort of social media” (EDRi, link) Alan Shatter,
the Irish Minister of Justice, has demanded an end to the abuse
of the PULSE police database...he said that it was necessary
“to ensure that individuals who have done no wrong do not
have their privacy violated” and that in no circumstances
should the database “be used as some sort of social network
to be accessed out of curiosity by members of the Force”.
EU: Schengen Information
System (SIS II) goes live
Commission press release (link) Commission memo: Questions and Answers: Schengen Information System (SIS II) (link) List of competent authorities which are authorised to search directly the data contained in the second generation Schengen Information System (2013/C103/01, pdf)
Today, the second generation Schengen Information System (SIS II) enters into operation to increase security and facilitate free movement within the Schengen area. The SIS II allows for an easy exchange of information between national border control authorities, customs and police authorities on persons who may have been involved in a serious crime. It also contains alerts on missing persons, in particular children, as well as information on certain property, such as banknotes, cars, vans, firearms and identity documents that may have been stolen, misappropriated or lost.
Analysis of SIS II:
Statewatch analysis:
From
the Schengen Information System to SIS II and the Visa Information
System (VIS): the proposals explained (May 2005)
Statewatch news online: Small
steps to big brother: the development of the Visa Information
System and the Schengen Information System II is back on track (August 2011)
Statewatch news online: Commission
reports that SIS II is "on track" to come into operation
in early 2013
(October 2012)
Centre for European Policy Studies report: The
Difficult Road to the Schengen Information System II: The legacy
of ‘laboratories’ and the cost for fundamental rights
and the rule of law (April 2011)
EU: European Commission press release: Internal
security: What progress has been made? (link) Organised crime is still a major
challenge for the internal security of the EU. Cybercrime, along
with trafficking in human beings and the increase in violent
extremism are also major security threats that the EU continues
to face, together with money laundering and corruption. These
threats are outlined in the Commission's annual report on the
implementation of the EU's Internal Security Strategy, released
today. It highlights areas under each of the objectives of the
strategy (2011-2014) where Member States and EU agencies should
pay particular attention. See: Second Report
on the implementation of the EU Internal Security Strategy (COM 2013 179, pdf)
EU: European Parliament press release: EU
must be enabled to enforce visa reciprocity, say Civil Liberties
MEPs
(link) Reimposing visa requirements on nationals of third countries
that fail to remove them for EU citizens would be made easier
by visa reciprocity rule changes voted in the Civil Liberties
Committee on Monday. The EU could also temporarily suspend its
visa-free travel rules to halt "substantial and sudden increases"
in irregular migrant numbers or unfounded asylum applications,
but only as a last resort, MEPs added. But these changes have
first to be agreed with EU member states.
EU: Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly report: Frontex:
human rights responsibilities (Doc. 13161, 8 April 2013, pdf) ...steps
are necessary to enhance democratic scrutiny by the European
Parliament, human rights training activities for those involved
in Frontex operations should be a priority, and it is necessary
to ensure public accountability by putting in place an independent
monitoring system and an effective complaints mechanism.
Statewatch News Digest: 9 April 2013 (49 items)
EU: Europol: Serious
and Organised Crime Threat Assessment (SOCTA) 2013 (pdf) This strategic
report is Europol’s flagship product providing information
to Europe’s law enforcement community and decision-makers
about the threat of serious and organised crime to the EU.
EU: European External Action Service (EEAS): Six
Month Report on the EU Operations Centre, 22 September 2012 -
14 March 2013
(pdf)
EU: European External Action Service (EEAS): Suggestions
for crisis management procedures for CSDP crisis management operations (pdf)
Statewatch analysis: The
second phase of the Common European Asylum System: A brave new
world - or lipstick on a pig? (pdf) by Professor Steve Peers, University
of Essex.
Several years ago, the EU set itself the deadline of 2010 - later postponed to 2012 - for completing the second phase of the Common European Asylum System (CEAS). Near the end of March 2013, the European Parliament (EP) and the Council (the Member States' interior ministers) finally agreed upon the texts of the two remaining legislative measures to this end. No further EU measures on asylum (other than a revision of the current European Refugee Fund) are currently under discussion or planned for the time being. So the recently agreed rules will likely govern the issue of asylum in the EU for a number of years to come.
EU: Council of Europe: Milestone
reached in negotiations on accession of EU to the European Convention
on Human Rights (link) Negotiators for the 47 Council of Europe
Member States and the European Union have finalised the draft
accession agreement of the European Union to the European Convention
on Human rights. The EU Court of Justice in Luxembourg will now
be asked to give its opinion on the text.
UK: National Institute of
Economic and Social Research: Potential
impacts on the UK of future migration from Bulgaria and Romania (pdf) The report identifies
a number of key gaps in evidence which could help inform future
impacts of economic migration resulting from EU expansion.
EU: The spider's web: Europol goes global in the hunt for
intelligence and analysis: Part 3
The "angular lines" used in Europol's logo, explains the agency, are "derived from a spider's web which represents exchange of information, networking and the cooperative nature of our work." The logo is made up of a number of pieces that "fit together like a jigsaw and symbolise our core business - analysis. The upward direction of the points in the symbol signifies speed, progress, upward movement and precision."
Over the next three weeks a series
of articles on Statewatch News Online will examine Europol's
proposed new agreements. We start with an overview of the context
in which the agency is seeking these new agreements, before moving
on to examine two of the four new proposed "external partners"
- Brazil and Mexico. Next week the proposed agreement with Georgia
is examined, and following that, the UAE.
Part 3
EU: Council of the European Union: Working
Group on Information Exchange and Data Protection (DAPIX): Business
concept for an Information Exchange Platform for Law Enforcement
Agencies
(7843/13, pdf)
EU: Council of the European Union: Proposal
for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council
amending Directive 2003/98/EC on re-use of public sector information
- Preparations for the informal trialogue with the European Parliament (7493/13, pdf)
EU: Council of the European Union: Working Party on General Matters
including Evaluations: Follow-up
to mutual Evaluation Reports (6865/1/13, pdf)
Norway: Coalition
condemns asylum seeker policy (theForeigner, link)
EU: Council of the European Union: Europol: Target
information management architecture (IMS Action 10) - Draft vision
on EU law enforcement information exchange (7903/13, pdf) Draft
vision on EU law enforcement information exchange submitted by
Europol as the outcome of the work done in the Working Group
on IMS Action Point 10.
EU: Council of the European Union: Draft
Joint Declaration on a Common Agenda on Migration and Mobility
between India and the European Union and its Member States (7600/13, pdf)
EU: Council of the European Union: Exchange
of EU classified information (EUCI) with third States and international
organisations
(7791/13, pdf) Provides details of agreements concluded by the
EU and of administrative arrangements entered into by the Secretary-General
of the Council under which EUCI may be exchanged with third States
and international organisations.
EU: Council of the European Union: Politico-Military Group: PMG
recommendations on the CSDP aspects of the Cybersecurity Strategy
of the European Union (7847/13, pdf) Following the agreement by the
Politico-Military Group on 25 March 2013, the Political and Security
Committee is invited to agree the PMG recommendations on the
CSDP aspects of the Cybersecurity Strategy of the European Union.
EU: Council of the European Union: Standing Committee on operational
co-operation on internal security (COSI): EU
Policy Cycle: Implementation Monitoring (16014/12, pdf) Half year monitoring
reports of the eight EMPACT Operational Action Plans for the
second half of 2012.
EU: Council of the European Union: Preparation
of the Schengen evaluation in 2013 - Programmes, participants,
technical details - an overview (5147/13, pdf)
EU: Council of Europe: Fifth
negotiation meeting between the CDDH ad hoc negotiation group
and the European Commission on the accession of the European
Union to the European Convention on Human Rights: Revised chairperson's
proposal on outstanding issues (pdf)
Police
accused of coverup in immigrant attack (EnetEnglish, link)
EU: AP
leads as Media Finally Ditch ‘Illegal’ Label for Migration (Ethical Journalism Network, link) The
announcement this week by the Associated Press, the world’s
biggest news media organisation, that it will no longer use the
term "illegal immigrant" is welcome, but long overdue...The
use of alternative terms – ‘undocumented’ or ‘unauthorised’,
for instance – will help, but the decisions now being taken
by major media illustrate that it may be time for journalists
and media at all levels to rethink their use of language and
its potential impact on the individuals concerned.
EU: Council of the European
Union: State
of play of COSI project group implementing one of the "29
measures for reinforcing the protection of the external borders
and combating illegal immigration": "Measure 4".
FINAL REPORT (15906/1/12, pdf)
EU: Council of the European
Union: Proposal
for a Council Directive on consular protection for citizens of
the Union abroad - Delegations' comments to Chapters 3 and 4 (6493/13, pdf)
EU: European Commission: Proposal
for a Council Decision authorising Member States to ratify, in
the interests of the European Union, the Convention concerning
decent work for domestic workers, 2011, of the International
Labour Organisation (COM 2013 152, pdf)
EU: Council of the European Union: Prüm Decisions documents:
Statistics and reports on automated data exchange for 2012 (7146/13, pdf)
March 2013
Rights
groups criticize EU immigration policy (DW, link)
EU: Council of the European Union: Visa reciprocity: Draft
Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending
Council Regulation (EC) No 539/2001 listing the third countries
whose nationals must be in possession of visas when crossing
the external borders and those whose nationals are exempt from
that requirement - Approval of the final compromise text with
a view to an agreement at first reading (7990-13, 27 March 2013, pdf)
Cyprus
bailout: a punishment not a solution (euobserver, link)
EU: Council of the European Union: EURODAC and Law Enforcement
Agencies access: 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 (EU)
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)
and to request comparisons with EURODAC data by Member States'
law enforcement authorities and Europol for law enforcement purposes
and amending Regulation (EU) No 1077/2011 establishing a European
Agency for the operational management of large-scale IT systems
in the area of freedom, security and justice (Recast version)
- Report of the fourth informal trilogue (7713-13, pdf)
and Analysis of the final compromise text with a view to an agreement (pdf): "Following the informal trilogue held on 21 March 2013, the Presidency submits the consolidated text in the Annex to this note for endorsement by the Permanent Representatives Committee." Note "informal" trilogue.
EU: Council of the European Union: Right to a lawyer: Proposal
for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council
on the
right of access to a lawyer in criminal proceedings and on the
right to communicate upon arrest [First reading] - Questions
on selected issues (7564-13, 21 March 2013, pdf)
and see: DS 1193/13 (pdf):"In view of the meeting of the Friends of the Presidency on 13 and 14 March 2013, delegations will find in the Annex a revised version of the draft Directive, together with some explicative comments."
USA: Government Accountability Office (GAO): Information
Sharing: Additional Actions Could Help Ensure That Efforts to
Share Terrorism-Related Suspicious Activity Reports Are Effective (link)
EU: EUROPOL: European Commission: Europol: The EU
hub for support to law enforcement cooperation and training (Press Release, pdf),
Regulation
on the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation
and Training (Europol) and repealing Decisions 2009/371/JHA and
2005/681/JHA
(pdf)
And see: Communication: Establishing a European Law Enforcement Training Scheme (pdf)
EU: ROMA: Fundamental Rights Agency: FRA
Brief: Data on discrimination of Roma and anti-Roma crime (pdf)
EUROCRISIS: After Cyprus: Ordinary
citizens forced to accept losses (European Voice, link)
No
Account Of Immigrant Kids In Greece (Greek Reporter, link)
EU
asylum applications on the rise (euobserver, link)
Half
of major UK websites breach EU data protection law and create
‘spam’, says study (link)
EU: ASYLUM
PROCEDURES DIRECTIVE:Council of the European Union: Amended
proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the
Council on common procedures for granting and withdrawing international
protection status (Recast) [First reading] - Analysis of final
compromise text with a view to agreement (146 pages, 7695-13,
pdf). Final compromise text between the Council and the European
Parliament, after 8 trilogue meetings.
EU: The
spiders web: Europol goes global in the hunt for intelligence
and analysis - Part 2:
The "angular lines" used in Europol's logo, explains the agency, are "derived from a spider's web which represents exchange of information, networking and the cooperative nature of our work." The logo is made up of a number of pieces that "fit together like a jigsaw and symbolise our core business - analysis. The upward direction of the points in the symbol signifies speed, progress, upward movement and precision."
Over the next three weeks a series of articles on Statewatch News Online examines Europol's proposed new agreements. We started with an overview of the context in which the agency is seeking these new agreements, before moving on to examine two of the four new proposed "external partners" - Brazil and Mexico. This week the proposed agreement with Georgia is examined, and following that, the UAE:
UK: Petition:
Forced to flee: Fozia and Nawaz (NCADC, link) "Fozia and Nawaz
are a married couple in grave danger of so-called ‘honour
killing’ if returned to Pakistan. They face extreme violence
from Fozia’s family and community persecution because they
have crossed the faith divide. Yet UKBA is intent on deporting
them."
DENMARK:
Opinion
| The fight for democracy (Copenhagen Post, link)
EU: NEW
DATA PROTECTION REGULATION: European Data Protection Supervisor
(EDPS): EDPS:
Enormous energy put into reforming data protection rules must
deliver strong and effective protection for EU citizens (Press release, pdf):
"Peter Hustinx, EDPS, says: "As a society, we are increasingly reliant on technology that processes huge amounts of our personal information. Electronic surveillance is commonplace with profiling and "big data" putting our privacy under strain. The reform of the data protection framework is a momentous opportunity to redress the balance and guarantee this fundamental right for all EU citizens for generations to come. It is vital that the outcome of the negotiations in the European Parliament and the Council is a reform package that delivers a high level of data protection."
and Additional EDPS comments on the Data Protection Reform Package (pdf).
ACTA: European Court
of Justice judgment: Sophie in ‘t
Veld MEP v European Commission (pdf). See: Sophie
in 't Veld (MEP) determined to step up efforts for more transparency
in EU
(link):
"Today's ruling unfortunately upholds the culture of discretion and confidentiality of diplomats that was common in the fifties", Dutch MEP Sophie In 't Veld (ALDE/D66) says in a reaction to the judgment of the European General Court in her case against the European Commission for the refusal to disclose documents on the negotiations on the anti-piracy treaty ACTA. The Court ruled, in favour of In 't Veld, that the Commission had classified too many documents confidential. However, the Court also supported the Commission by stating that a general confidentiality agreement with negotiating partners is allowed. In 't Veld: "This way diplomatic negotiations are routinely classified confidential while citizens are left in the dark."
EU: Council of the European
Union: Eurosur, Asylum Procedures and Visa Reciprocity
- Proposal
for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council
establishing the European Border Surveillance System (EUROSUR) (86 pages, 7143-13,
pdf) Multi-column document for the trilogue between the Council
and the European Parliament
- Amended
proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the
Council on common procedures for granting and withdrawing international
protection status (Recast) [First reading] - Preparation of the
eight informal trilogue (7434-13, pdf) Sets out the main points for a
possible EP/Council compromise
- Draft Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Council Regulation (EC) No 539/2001 listing the third countries those nationals must be in possession of visas when crossing the external borders and those whose nationals are exempt from that requirement (7524-13, pdf) Sets out the main points for a possible EP/Council compromise
SWEDEN-MIGRANTS:
Billström's
apology 'not enough': Löfven (The Local, link)
EU: SIS:
Council of the European Union: Schengen
information system database statistics 01/01/2013 (pdf)
EU: EEAS: Germany
calls for more powerful EU diplomatic service (euobserver, link)
Council
of Europe: Some
countries 'slipping back' to discrimination against LGBT people,
says PACE rapporteur (link)
EU: LAW
ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES ACCESS TO EURODAC: Council of the European
Union: Amended
proposal for a Regulation on the establishment of 'EURODAC' for
the comparison of fingerprints for the effective application
of Regulation (EU) 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) and to request comparisons with EURODAC data
by Member States' law enforcement authorities and Europol for
law enforcement purposes and amending Regulation (EU) No 1077/2011
establishing a European Agency for the operational management
of large-scale IT systems in the area of freedom, security and
justice (Recast version) - Preparation for the fourth informal
trilogue
(246 pages, 7476-12, dated 15 March 2013, pdf): This sets of
the main points of a possible European Parliament/Council deal
in the so-called fourth "informal" trilogue discussion
and the Council's version on acceptable "compromises".
And see earlier version: 7022-13 (249 pages, 12 March
2013, pdf) Multi-column documents
CYPRUS: Euro bail out
plumbs new depths, bank accounts to be taxed: Cyprus
heading for bank run after bailout deal (euobserver, link), EU
leaders gamble in Cyprus bank bailout (BBC News, link) and Cyprus
rescue breaks all the rules (Robert Peston, BBC News, link). If
the Cypriot parliament fails to back the troika (European Commission,
ECB and IMF) deal technocratic rule may be imposed as it was
in Greece and Italy.
And see: Cypriot president says he was forced to accept EU bailout (euractiv, link): ""Essentially parliament is called to legalise a decision to rob depositors blind, against every written and unwritten law," said Yiannakis Omirou, speaker of parliament and head of EDEK, the small Socialist party. "We refuse to subscribe to this."....Independent financial experts and governmental sources believe that the Eurogroup and the European Central Bank need a flawless execution of the bailout agreement, because the deal will likely serve as blueprint for future bailouts. Most likely recipients of such bailout packages are the so-called PIGS countries: Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain."
FRONTEX: Statewatch
Analysis: "Trust
in Frontex”: The 2013 work programme (pdf) by Marie Martin.
This analysis examines the main points of the EU’s border management agency Frontex’s 2013 work programme and the first work programme of the Consultative Forum on Fundamental Rights (hereafter “the Consultative Forum”).
See also: Frontex Consultative Forum, Work Programme 2013, January 2013
Human
rights organisations file OECD complaints against surveillance
firms Gamma International and Trovicor (ECCHR, link)
UK: Protester
wins surveillance database fight - John Catt, who has no criminal
record, wins legal action to have records deleted from police
database of suspected extremists (Guardian, link)
EU: The spiders web:
Europol goes global in the hunt for intelligence and analysis:
The "angular lines" used in Europol's logo, explains the agency, are "derived from a spider's web which represents exchange of information, networking and the cooperative nature of our work." The logo is made up of a number of pieces that "fit together like a jigsaw and symbolise our core business - analysis. The upward direction of the points in the symbol signifies speed, progress, upward movement and precision."
Over the next three weeks a series
of articles on Statewatch News Online will examine Europol's
proposed new agreements. We start with an overview of the context
in which the agency is seeking these new agreements, before moving
on to examine two of the four new proposed "external partners"
- Brazil and Mexico. Next week the proposed agreement with Georgia
is examined, and following that, the UAE.
Part 1.1
Part 1.2
Part
1.3
Part 2 next week
EU: Council
of the European Union: Legal
Migration - Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament
and the Council on conditions of entry and residence of third
country-nationals in the framework of an intra-corporate transfer
- Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and the
Council on conditions of entry and residence of third country-nationals
for the purpose of seasonal employment
= State of play (pdf) and Common
European Asylum System - State of play (pdf)
EU: Council of the European Union:
- Sahel
/ Maghreb (crisis in Mali, IN AMENAS) - implications for EU internal
security : executive summary (pdf)
- Follow-up
to the evaluation of the EU Policy Cycle 2011 - 2013 (pdf)
- Opinion
of the Council Security Committee on the draft security rules
for the European External Action Service (EEAS) (pdf)
EU: NEW DATA PROTECTION REGULATION: European Parliament amendments
to be discussed in the Civil Liberties Committee (LIBE) later
in March to the Commission's proposal: Ten documents: - 926396 (pdf) - 928599 (pdf) - 928600 (pdf) - 929498 (pdf) - 929505 (pdf) - 929511 (pdf) - 929512 (pdf) - 929519 (pdf) - 929533 (pdf) - 929832 (pdf)
EU: European
Ombudsman to retire (pdf)
HUNGARY: NGOs: Main
concerns regarding the Fourth Amendment to the Fundamental Law
of Hungary
(pdf)
UK: Communications
Capabilities Development Programme (Open Rights Group, link)
UK: EDF
drops lawsuit against environmental activists after backlash
- Energy company accused of undermining peaceful protest with
civil action against campaigners who occupied power plant (Guardian, link)
EU: SHOCKING VIDEO: When
border controls kill
Following the release on 11 March
2013 of a shocking video on the Spanish radio station Cadena
Ser's website that shows a patrol boat striking and sinking a
dinghy that carried 25 migrants on 13 December 2012 while it
was pursuing it.
The Spanish and international organisations Andalucía
Acoge, Asociación Pro-Derechos Humanos de Andalucía
(APDHA), Boats4People, Asociación Elin and the Federación
estatal de SOS Racismo issued a press statement in which
they noted that the video belies previous official versions of
the incident and the interior ministry is "responsible for
the death and disappearance of eight people in the waters off
the Canary Islands' coast: Press
statement: Concerning the video that belies the official version
about a dinghy that was run over by the "Río Cabaleiro"
patrol boat (English translation).
EU: Time
for a European Spring (Corporate Observatory Europe, link): "People
across Europe come together in Brussels and other European capitals
this week to reject EU austerity policies and their erosion of
democracy. The police have hampered efforts in Brussels by banning
the organised march and denying people the right to free assembly."
EU: Council of the European Union: Customs Internet Crime Units:
Draft
report of Action 5.2 "To examine the working/investigative
techniques applied by customs and other law enforcement authorities
to combat customs related crime, including organised crime, through
the Internet, and to explore the current situation regarding
the existence of Customs Internet Crime specialised units" (17225-rev1-12, pdf)
and Earlier
version
(17225-12, pdf)
Hungary
faces fresh criticism over constitutional changes (The Parliament, link)
UK: "This
government is behaving like some third rate dictatorship" (Legal Voi
Permissible
ID checks in EU Member States – I need your help (Jon Worth blog, link)
USA-ISRAEL: Council of the European Union: Security Information
Agreements
- Security
of information agreement between the EU and the United States
of America - Note verbale addressed by the General Secretariat
of the Council to the United States of America (pdf)
- Security
of information agreement between the EU and Israel - Note verbale
addressed by the General Secretariat of the Council to the Israeli
Mission to the European Union (pdf)
EU-PRUM: Council of the European Union: Implementation
of Council Decisions 2008/615/JHA and 2008/616/JHA ("Prüm
Decisions") - Implementation guide - DNA Data Exchange (62 pages, pdf)
EU:JITS: Council of the European Union: Conclusions
of the 8th Annual meeting of the National Experts on Joint Investigation
Teams (18 - 19 October 2012, the Hague) (pdf)
EU: Meijers Committee: Update
No.1 March 2013: In this update information on our recent comments
and letters is given and the results of our work are shared (pdf)
Academics
line up to defend EU data protection law (euobserver, link)
UK: Philippe
Sands quits Lib Dems in protest at support for secret courts
- Prominent lawyer says bill 'will be used to shield governmental
wrongdoing from public and judicial scrutiny' (Guardian, link)
Statewatch
News Digest: 11
March 2013
(32 items)
UK: CCTV
Harnessed For Police National Database Use (Police Oracle, link):
"Forces should be able to use high-resolution CCTV images
to search the Police National Database's (PND) custody photos
by the end of the year, according to a senior officer. It is
expected that the PND will go live with a facial search capacity
in May, which will allow officers to compare pictures with those
of other forces across the country. However the photo must have
ears, eyes and nose clearly visible." See also: Introduction
of a Surveillance Camera Code of Practice: Impact Assessment: (pdf)
Composite
Decision-Making and Accountability Networks: Some Deductions
from a Saga
by Carol Harlow (Jean Monet papers, link): "Using asset-freezing
as a paradigm of multi-level or composite decision-making, it
explores the effectiveness of traditional accountability machinery
in dealing with this phenomenon, concluding that cooperative
‘accountability networks’ or networks of entities specialising
in accountability such as courts, parliaments and ombudsmen,
should be developed to fill the serious accountability gaps that
have emerged."
EU
ministers must not water down data protection legislation (Green.EFA, link)
UK: A
dangerous use of police force to quell protest - The Alfie Meadows
ruling is a reminder of the coalition's hypocrisy on non-violent
protest
(Guardian, link)
UK's
war on terror targets the vulnerable by Victoria Brittain (Asia Times Online,
link)
HUNGARY: Proposed constitutional changes: Letter
from NGOs to EU Commissioner (pdf)
USA-DRONES: EU
must contest US legal justification of drone killings (link):
"LibDem European justice & human rights spokeswoman Baroness Sarah Ludford MEP has jointly with MEPs from other political groups condemned the United States’ targeted killing programme under which the CIA and the military hunt and kill individuals suspected of links to terrorism anywhere in the world. They are calling on the EU to contest the US attempt to pervert international law."
And see: European Parliament Members Speak Out Against U.S. Targeted Killing Program (ACLU, link)
UPDATE: EU: Justice and Home Affairs Council: 7-8 March: Press
release, 7-8 March 2013 (pdf): "B"
Points agenda
(pdf), "A"
Points: legislative agenda (adopted without discussion, pdf) "A"
Points: non-legislative agenda (adopted without discussion, pdf)
EU: DATA PROTECTION:
Article 29 Working Party on Data Protection: Opinion
01/2013 providing further input into the discussions on the draft
Police and Criminal Justice Data Protection Directive (WP 201, pdf)
"the Working Party stresses that the current exemptions and limitations to the data subjects’ rights are too broad. Without further explanation, it is in particular not justifiable why Member States should be allowed to exempt entire categories of personal data from the right of access."
"The evolution of law enforcement techniques and methods in the past decade clearly demonstrate that all these categories which fall under the broad category of “non-suspects” need specific protection. This is especially the case when the processing is not done in a specific criminal investigation or prosecution.It is the difference between information that the law enforcement authorities ‘need to know’ and the information that is ‘nice to have’."
EU-Morocco: Political agreement on
Mobility Partnership: Towards the first readmission agreement
with an African country?
On 1 March 2013, the President of
the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, and the
EU's Commissioner on Home Affairs, Cecilia Malström, met
with the Moroccan authorities in Rabat. In a press conference,
Barroso and Moroccan Prime Minister Abdelilah Benkirane announced
a "new step in the relations" between the EU
and Morocco, including a political agreement on the signature
of a Mobility Partnership which, some suggest, may finally lead
to the conclusion of a readmission agreement which the Moroccan
authorities have so far refused to sign.
UK: "Detention
doesn't work… for anyone"
The charity Detention Action is
calling for an end to indefinite immigration detention in the
UK, arguing that the system currently in place does not work
"for anyone". "In the UK, migrants are deprived
of their liberty without charge or trial," says the charity's
campaign briefing. "The UK Border Agency detains migrants
for longer than any other country in Europe. Asylum-seekers,
foreign ex-offenders and other migrants are held in prison-like
conditions without time limit."
EU: Visegrad
countries to form joint military force (euractiv, link)
EU: Millions
of euros for new police databases in West Africa
At least €5 million is being
spent by the EU on developing a series of interlinked national
police databases in West Africa, that will eventually allow information
and intelligence gathered in the region to be disseminated to
law enforcement authorities across the world.
Statewatch
News Digest: 7
March 2013
(47 items)
EU: Justice and Home
Affairs Council: 7-8 March: Press
release, 7 March 2013 (pdf): "B"
Points agenda
(pdf), "A"
Points: legislative agenda (adopted without discussion, pdf) "A"
Points: non-legislative agenda (adopted without discussion, pdf) and
Background
Note
(pdf)
EU:
EUROPEAN INVESTIGATION ORDER (EIO): The nine Member State
governments who proposed the EIO lobby the Council of the European
Union for it to be quickly adopted: Initiative
of the Kingdom of Belgium, the Republic of Bulgaria, the Republic
of Estonia, the Kingdom of Spain, the Republic of Austria, the
Republic of Slovenia and the Kingdom of Sweden for a Directive
of the European Parliament and of the Council regarding the European
Investigation Order in criminal matters- Letters (6532-12, pdf)
See also Statewatch Analysis: The proposed European Investigation Order: Assault on human rights and national sovereignty (pdf)
UK: National
Security Strategy: Report from Parliamentary Joint Committee
on the National Security Strategy: The
work of the Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy
in 2012
(pdf): "we are not yet convinced that the existence of
the NSC is making the contribution that it should: enabling Government
to work as a co-ordinated whole. In other words, we question
how much extra value is derived from having the NSC as opposed
to the preceding systems of Cabinet Committees."
European Parliament:
Question to the Commission from ALDE group MEPs: Reform
of the Constitution in Hungary (pdf) and See: Secretary
General calls upon Hungarian government and parliament to postpone
vote on constitutional amendments (CoE, link)
UK: House
of Commons: Business, Innovation and Skills Committee: Too
Little, Too Late: Committee’s observations on the Government
Response to the Report on Overseas Students and Net Migration (pdf)
EU: FRONTEX:
Work
Programme for 2013 (pdf)
Statewatch News Digest: 5
March 2013
(61 items)
"Predictive
policing" comes to the UK
In January last year, The Independent
reported that "a pioneering technique to predict crime
before it happens could be imported from the United States to
this country." This prediction came true in December, when
Kent police began "a trial of a predictive policing model
from the USA that assesses several years' worth of crime data
and human behaviour to predict the areas in which offences are
likely to take place."
European
Commission: Minutes
of the Experts' Committee meeting on the implementation of the
Framework Decision 2008/909/JHA
(Transfer of Prisoners), 2008/947/JHA (Probation and alternative
sanctions) and 2009/829/JHA(European Supervision Order) (pdf)
GREECE
& CoE Committee for the Prevention of Torture visit to Greece:
Letter (pdf): "We assume
that you are already aware of the numerous reports describing
detention conditions in Greece, with our present letter we will
not do the same but will focus on the weaknesses in the procedure
regarding migrants’ treatment by the authorities."
EU: Videos of speech and questions: by Tony Bunyan,
Statewatch Director, at the 40th Annual Conference of the European
Group on Deviancy and Social Control, held in Nicosia, Cyprus,
September 2012: The EU state and civil liberties: Video
1,
Video
2
and Video
3
(links)
GERMANY:
Anti-terror
laws face increased scrutiny (DW, link)
Greek
police ‘Photoshop away’ signs of brutality from mugshots (AI, link) and Prosecutor
probing claims police abused bank robbery, terrorism suspects (Ekathimerini, link)
EU: The
democratic deficit in action (Matt Carr's Infernal Machine, link):
"I’ve always suspected that the European Commission
was something of an elite outfit. But in the last two weeks,
I’ve been granted an unexpected firsthand insight into the
Commission’s commitment to democratic debate....Then, a
few days ago, I got a call saying that my appearance had been
definitively vetoed, and that the DG was not even willing to
debate with the Jesuit Refugee Service either. So the upshot,
last I heard, is that there will be a studio debate about the
EU’s new ‘migration management’ policies in North
Africa – between the Home Affairs Director-General …
and a representative of the Moroccan government!"
Minister:
Germany would veto Bulgaria, Romania in Schengen (DW, link)
UK: 43,000
strip-searches carried out on children as young as 12 - Campaigner
criticises 'institutionalised child abuse' after FOI request
reveals huge number of searches in custody (Guardian, link)
EU: European
Ombudsman: Ombudsman
welcomes the Commission’s disclosure of documents on UK
opt-out from Charter of
Fundamental Rights (pdf):
"The
European Ombudsman, P. Nikiforos Diamandouros, has welcomed the
European Commission’s decision to give access to documents
drafted by its services on the UK opt-out from the EU Charter
of Fundamental Rights. This follows a complaint from the European
Citizen Action Service (ECAS), a
Brussels-based NGO, which wanted to find out why UK citizens
do not enjoy the same fundamental rights as other EU citizens.
The Commission initially rejected the Ombudsman’s recommendation
to disclose the documents. After the Ombudsman addressed a critical
remark to the Commission, ECAS again
requested access to the documents. The Commission then reviewed
its position and released all the documents."
ECAS: EU Rights Clinic and ECAS Secure Release of EU Charter Opt-Out Documents (Press release, pdf) and Background Note (pdf)
EU: MANDATORY DATA RETENTION CASE: European
Court of Justice: Request for
a preliminary ruling from the Verfassungsgerichtshof (Austria)
lodged on 19 December 2012 - Kärntner Landesregierung and
Others
(pdf)
See also: ROMANIA: EC drops case against Romania as data retention law passes (Telecompaper): "The European Commission (EC) dropped the infringement procedure on 21 February that it had opened against Romania in 2011 over the non-implementation in due time of the provisions of the directive 24/2006 concerning the storage of confidential data by communications operators as the Romanian parliament passed the so-called 'Big brother' law in May 2012"
EU: Justice and Home Affairs Council,
7-8 March: Draft
"B" Points" agenda (pdf)
EU: Complex EU law-making
dubbed 'infernal, undemocratic' (euobserver, link): "Brussels
is awash with stories about the unhealthy influence of lobbyists
on law-makers but as big a scandal, say some experts, is the
increasing amount of legislation made with little scrutiny at
all. The lack of oversight - despite the EU capital's 754 MEPs
and 1,000s of lobbyists - is down to the rising use of so-called
secondary legislation coupled with a greater tendency to fast-track
primary laws."
See also: Statewatch analysis: Secret trilogues and the democratic deficit
EU: Calls
for better access to documents gain support in parliament (link)
Statewatch analysis: The
rise of xenophobia and the migration crisis in Greece: The Council
of Europe’s wake-up call: “Europe cannot afford to
look away” (pdf)
On 23 January, the Committee on Migration, Refugees and Population of the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly issued a draft Resolution and report calling on the EU and its Member States to take concrete solidarity measures in the field of migration and asylum (e.g. reception capacity, resettlement programmes in other Member States). The situation in Greece is seen as a "test case for European solidarity."
Because of "mounting tensions in the east Mediterranean" and Greece’s failure "to respect the human rights and dignity of migrants, asylum seekers and refugees," the Committee warned about the rise of racist violence and far-right parties. It also argued that the EU’s actions could contribute to the situation in the country. Rapporteur Tineke Strink stressed that the situation was very serious and that "Europe cannot afford to look away."
UK: Home Affairs Committee:
Undercover
Policing: Interim Report (pdf) The Committee calls for a fundamental
review of the law governing undercover police operations, including
the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000. The Committee
recommends the publication of a consultation paper before the
next election, with a view to publishing draft legislation at
the beginning of the next Parliament.
Statewatch analysis: EU:
Secretive Frontex Working Group seeks to increase surveillance
of travellers
(pdf)
Frontex has been negotiating in secret to grant state agencies greater access to the personal data of travellers entering the EU. No hard evidence has been presented by EU institutions to support Frontex's claim that this will lead to more effective border management and critics have warned that the mandatory collection of passenger information is entirely unnecessary and a disproportionate infringement of individual privacy.
February 2013
Statewatch analysis: TESAT
report shows decrease in terrorist activity in 2011 but national
police forces see a continuing threat (pdf)
Europol's report shows a significant decrease in terrorist incidents between 2009 and 2011 and its attempt to justify anti-terrorism initiatives. The lack of recent activity from established threats such as Al Qaeda and ETA has led anti-terrorist policing to increasingly focus on left-wing, anarchist and single issue groups.
EU: European Commission:
'Smart
borders': enhancing mobility and security (press release):
Commission press conference mainly focussed on the benefits of
a Registered Traveller Programme. Legislative proposals:
Proposal for a Regulation establishing
Registered Traveller Programme (pdf)
Staff
working document – detailed explanations (pdf)
Accompanying
impact assessment (pdf) Summary
(pdf)
Proposal
for a Regulation establishing an Entry/Exit System (pdf)
Staff
working document – detailed explanations (pdf)
Accompanying
impact assessment (pdf) Summary
(pdf)
Proposal
for a Regulation amending Regulation (EC) No 562/2006
(pdf)
Greens press release: EU border control plans: Big brother technologies not a smart plan for Europe’s borders (pdf)
See also: Borderline: The EU's New Border Surveillance Initiatives: Assessing the Costs and Fundamental Rights Implications of EUROSUR and the "Smart Borders" Proposals (pdf) A study by the Heinrich Böll Foundation written by Ben Hayes and Mathias Vermeulen.
Italy: ASGI's
pre-election proposals to reform immigration laws
In January 2013, looking ahead to the Italian general elections that were held on 24-25 February 2013, the Associazione di Studi Giuridici sull'Immigrazione (ASGI) presented a ten-point document. It proposed reform to Italian legislation concerning immigration, foreigners, asylum and citizenship, to take place during the 2013-2018 legislature.
UK: Joint Committee on Human
Rights: Legislative Scrutiny: Justice
and Security Bill (second report) (pdf) We recommend
that the Bill be amended to ensure that a full judicial balancing
of interests always takes place within the CMP [closed material
proceedings], weighing the public interest in the fair and open
administration of justice against the likely degree of harm to
the interests of national security when deciding which material
should be heard in closed session and which in open session.
On 27 Februrary, 702 legal professionals, including 38 QCs, urged the government to scrap the Bill in a letter to the Daily Mail. They argue that were it to be introduced, the Bill would "fatally undermine the court room as an independent and objective forum in which allegations of wrongdoing can be fairly tested and where the Government can be transparently held to account." See: Guardian and Daily Mail coverage (links)
See also: Statewatch analysis: UK Government’s “secret justice” Bill widely condemned (October 2012, pdf)
Statewatch analysis: The
Global Approach to Migration and Mobility: the state of play (pdf)
GAMM has been promoted by the Commission as an "overarching framework of the EU external migration policy" but many member states remain sceptical of the value of dealing with migration issues at EU level. The approach has been much criticised for allowing member states to use migrants as disposable workers and for further restricting access to the EU.
Statewatch News Digest: 28 February 2013 (65 items)
EU: Council of the European
Union: INTRA-CORPORATE TRANSFERS: Proposal
for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council
on conditions of entry and residence of third-country nationals
in the framework of an intra-corporate transfer (6667-13,
pdf) Multicolumn document for "trilogues".
Belgium: Dramatic
footage released of Antwerp police killing arrestee
Jonathan Jacob was a 26 year old inhabitant of Antwerp with psychiatric problems who died in police custody in January 2010.
EU: Council of the European
Union: High
Level Working Group on Asylum and Migration (HLWG): Sumary of
discussions (5663-13, pdf) Includes useful summary pages:
5-24 of EU Global Approach to Migration and Mobility (GAMM)
EU: Council of the European
Union: VISA INFORMATION SYSTEM: VIS
- state of play (6412-13, pdf)
Statewatch analysis: UK:
The real “immigration debate” (pdf) by Frances Webber
This article provides an overview of the plight of refugees and migrants in Britain. This includes the devastating impact of legal aid cuts, the conditions of immigration detention, the growth of Islamophobia and the exploitation of undocumented migrants.
Statewatch analysis: When
dissent becomes subversion (pdf) by Liz Fekete
Europe’s anti-terror regimen is reshaping European society and has led to a distorted and discriminatory approach to criminal justice. Those who speak out against the erosion of democratic standards and the unfair treatment of Muslims are increasingly being targeted and penalised by the state.
UK: Campaigners
to put UK Border Agency before "court of public opinion"
Migrants' rights campaigners are planning to put the UK Border Agency (UKBA) before the "court of public opinion", with the agency accused of "racism, sexism, homophobia" the "degradation of thousands of asylum seekers, including victims of torture, rape and abuse" and, in reference to the revocation by the UKBA of London Metropolitan University's visa licence last year, for "attacks on education for international students."
Statewatch analysis: Netherlands:
Increased use of firearms by Dutch police (pdf)
Police in the Netherlands are increasingly drawing, and using, their firearms. This practice is being actively encouraged by police chiefs and the development has not been substantially criticised in the media. Other forms of police abuse are also on the rise. Since many police monitoring groups have ceased to function, there has been little public outcry at the situation.
EU: Council of the European Union: Customs Cooperation Working
Party: Threat
assessment on air transit passengers – Mandate for the project
group
(pdf)
UK: G4S
creates footballing history in Scotland (link) G4S Events provided security
for the first UK international football match to be held without
a policing presence. See also: Football
Security: Tightening Budgets, Reviewing Priorities (link)
EU: Council of the European Union: Implementation
of the provisions on information exchange of the "Prüm
Decisions" - overview of documents and procedures - overview
of declarations - state of play of implementation of automated
data exchange
(5074/1/13, pdf)
European Data Protection Supervisor: "The
role of data protection legislation", Conference on "Security
of e-Government" at the European Parliament, 19 February
2013 (pdf)
“Security" and "privacy" should not be confused, nor should "privacy and data protection" be treated as a subcategory of security. These concepts should rather be regarded as distinct and only partly overlapping. Briefly put: good security does not necessarily provide good privacy and data protection, but good privacy and data protection would always require good security.
EU: Council of the European Union: Proposal
for a Council Decision on the conclusion of the Cooperation Agreement
on a civil Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) between
the European Community and its Member States and Ukraine - Common
guidelines
(6549/13, pdf)
EU: Council of the European Union: Transitional
arrangements regarding free movement of workers of Bulgarian
and Romanian nationality - Information from the Commission (6651/13, pdf)
Statewatch
journal:
volume 22 no 4 is now available
online for subscribers. Volume 22 no 2/3 is now free to access, as are all previous
Statewatch journals.
A project proposed by France that seeks to automate the searching of national police databases has survived the Commission's December call for a halt to new police databases and computer networks at EU level. Europol and a number of other Member States have also expressed an interest in the project, 'Automation of the Data Exchange Process' (ADEP), which does "not intend to create new legislation but to enhance information exchange by automation of current manual procedures."
Flemish Peace Institute report: A
European Agenda for Security Technology: From Innovation Policy
to Export Controls (pdf)
EU: Council of the European Union: Justice
and Home Affairs Council: 7-8 March 2013: Advance
notice
(pdf) Provisional
Agenda
(pdf)
Statewatch News Digest: 25 February 2013 (33 items)
EU: DATA PROTECTION REGULATION: Council of the European Union:
Proposal
for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council
on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing
of personal data and on the free movement of such data (General
Data Protection Regulation) - Implementation of risk-based approach
- Flexibility for the Public Sector (pdf) Discussion of the Council's negotiating
position with the emphasis on "flexibility" for the
public sector.
EU: API, PNR, threat assessments,
and data-mining: Member States push for access to travellers'
personal data for customs authorities
EU Member States are seeking access
to Advanced Passenger Information and Passenger Name Record data
for customs authorities, even though it appears that only a minority
feel that such access is necessary and despite the fact that
there is not yet an EU-wide legal basis for the collection and
use of PNR data by law enforcement authorities. A project investigating
the possibilities for greater use of travellers' personal data
by customs authorities, initiated last year by the Cypriot delegation
in the Customs Cooperation Working Party, is now being supported
by a study started at the beginning of February by the Irish
Presidency following international agreements adopted by the
World Customs Organisation.
EU: DUBLIN II: ECRE, together
with Forum Réfugiés-Cosi, the Hungarian Helsinki
Committee and their national partners are publishing a comparative
study on how the Dublin II Regulation is applied: Lives
on Hold (link, pdf) that shows that the Dublin system
continues to fail both refugees and Member States. The research
deals with the practice surrounding the Dublin II Regulation
with respect to fundamental rights in 11 states: Austria, Bulgaria,
France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland
and the Netherlands.
FRANCE: Un
détenu battu à mort par des policiers (Le Soir, link): Shocking
images of a young, mentally ill man being beaten to death by
Belgian police.
BT
Lobbyists Try To Water Down EU Privacy Legislation (TechWeek Europe, link)
“The
Charity of the Security Industry”, on Christian Ehler MEP’s dual
role as rapporteur on Horizon 2020 and board member of GESA (German
Security Association): (Taz.de, link)
UK: Met
police launch inquiry into construction worker blacklisting -
Move reverses earlier decision not investigate claims of Met
police involvement in compiling 3,200-name blacklist (Guardian, link)
EU-GAMM: For the record: Council
Conclusions on the Global Approach to Migration and Mobility (pdf)
UK-EU: Emerging
Europe opportunities in the Security sector (UK Dept of Trade and
Investment, link): "the security measures and technologies
may induce concerns regarding the integrity of the private life"
EU: Council of the European Union: LEWP and expert groups,
New sanctions on listed persons, ACP-EU and Security rules
- Relationship between the LEWP and the eighteen (18) expert groups and networks related to the LEWP - Discussion Document (6241-13,pdf)
- Relationship between the LEWP and the eighteen (18) expert groups and networks related to the LEWP - Discussion Document (6241-add1-13, pdf) Contains useful chart of the 18 expert groups and review periods, where they exist.
- Guidelines on implementation and evaluation of restrictive measures (sanctions) in the framework of the EU Common Foreign and Security Policy - new elements (5993-13, pdf): "The making available of funds or economic resources to non-listed persons or entities which are owned or controlled by a listed person or entity will in principle be considered as making them indirectly available to the listed person or entity..."
- EU Policy Cycle: Monitoring of the Operational Action Plans 2012 (16014-12, pdf)
- Report on the 2011-2012 dialogue on migration and development endorsed by the ACP-EU Council of Ministers at its 37th session on 14 June 2012 in Port Vila. (ACP 2115-12, pdf)
- Technical updating of the Council security rules (6255-13, pdf)
EU: Council of the European Union: Standing Committee on operational
cooperation on internal security (COSI): JHA agencies, EUROJUST
and trafficking, Security research and industry, Multilateral
Cooperation Scoreboard, Annual Report of COSI and EU Policy Cycle
- Cooperation between JHA agencies: issues for discussion (6127-12, pdf)
- Report of the Annual Heads of JHA Agencies Meeting on 3 December 2012 (5968-13, pdf)
- Follow-up
to Strategic report on "Eurojust's action against trafficking
in human beings" (6035-13, pdf)
- Draft
Council Conclusions on strengthening the internal security authorities'
involvement in security-related research and industrial policy (5920-rev1-13, pdf)
- Multilateral
Cooperation Scorecard (5969-13, pdf): The scorecard was jointly drafted
by CEPOL, EASO, EIGE, EMCDDA, EUROJUST, EUROPOL,
FRA and FRONTEX.
- Timeline for the EU Policy Cycle activities in 2013 (5071-13, pdf)
Statewatch News Digest: 21 February 2013 (42 items)
Czech Republic: Stronger
efforts needed to end segregation of Roma (CoE, link)
European
Monitoring Launched: The Transparency of Policing Protests (Access-Info, link),
includes: The
Right to Protest Briefing (pdf) developed with Statewatch (pdf)
EP: DATA PROTECTION REGULATION:
Industry
Committee scrapes together a majority for a disastrous data protection
opinion
(EDRI, link)
Secret
State: The Justice and Security Bill: Placing the State above
the Law
(Ceasefire, link)
The European Court of Auditors (ECA) and the European Parliament have both found that it is impossible to assess the efficiency of European funds for the integration of migrants and refugees, in reports published as the European Union debates the adoption of the new Asylum and Migration Fund (2014-2020).
Germany: Amazon's
former private security firm with neo-Nazi employees is one of
many, say reports
A documentary aired by German TV
channel ARD on Thursday night (14 February) about online
shopping firm Amazon's operations in Germany caused outrage and
was widely covered in the media. The documentary revealed that
workers are being attracted from all over Europe with promises
of getting a contract with the firm. If they do get a job, workers
are monitored round-the-clock by guards from a security company
accused of having links to Neo-Nazi groups.
German
Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich is pushing for an EU-wide
immigration registry.(DW, link)
Greece
asylum: Journey through a broken system (BBC News, link: Paul Mason report)
EU: Council of the European Union: Conclusions
of the meeting of the Forerunners group of European Union Liaison
Officers (Brussels, 23 November 2011) (pdf) and Customs: Study
by the Presidency on Advanced Passenger Information and Passenger
Name Records
(pdf)
EU: European Commission: An
integrated parcel delivery market for the growth of e-commerce
in the EU
(COM 698-12, pdf)
ECRI: IRELAND: European Commission against Racism and Intolerance:
ECRI
report on Ireland: (pdf)
USA: Government Accountability Office (GAO): Department
of Homeland Security: Progress Made and Work Remaining after
Nearly
10 Years in Operation (pdf)
UK: Institute of Race Relations report: Racial
violence: Facing reality (link)
EU: Merger
of EU police agencies draws opposition (euobserver, link)
PORTUGAL/SPAIN: Austerity
protests in Spain and Portugal (BBC News): "Tens
of thousand of people have been protesting in Spain and Portugal
angry at harsh austerity measures. The demonstration in Lisbon
was organised by Portugal's largest trade union federation- against
cuts imposed as part of the country's eurozone bailout. In Spain,
demonstrators called for the government to amend stringent repossessions
laws which have seen hundreds of thousand lose their homes."
See also: Anti-austerity
protests on Portugal's streets; Protests
against evictions across Spain (euronews); Tenants
in Spain win first battle against evictions (Inter Press
Service) and “White
tide” of health demonstrations spreads from Madrid to 15
other cities (El Pais)
IRELAND: Absence
of migrant family law criticised (Irish Times, link)
Statewatch
Analysis: Italy/ECtHR:
“Pilot” judgement condemns Italy for inhuman and degrading
treatment in overcrowded jails by Yasha Maccanico
Statewatch
Analysis: How
the EU works and justice and home affairs decision-making by Tony Bunyan
Statewatch News Digest: 18 February 2013 (28 items)
EU
institutions want Justice and Home Affairs agencies to "fly
the EU flag" abroad
"More and better
use" could be made of Justice and Home Affairs (JHA) agencies
in "operational or capacity-building" and "advisory"
roles in foreign policy operations, according to a report from
the recent annual meeting of JHA agency chiefs, which says that
bodies such as Europol and Frontex are "in an excellent
position to 'fly the EU flag' vis-à-vis the Third Countries"
in which they operate.
EU-KOSOVO: European Commission: Report
on progress by Kosovo* in fulfilling the requirements of the
visa liberalisation roadmap (COM 66-13, pdf) and see: Crime
levels bode ill for Kosovo's EU visa-free bid (EUobserver): "Kosovo is lagging
behind in crime fighting reforms, limiting its prospects of obtaining
EU visa-free travel"
Amazon
under fire in Germany over 'neo-Nazi' guards (euobserver, link)
UK: Home Affairs Select Committee report: The
draft Anti-social Behaviour Bill: pre–legislative scrutiny (pdf)
Statewatch News Digest: 15
February 2013
(62 items)
UK: Police
investigate claims man being deported was badly beaten by guards (The Guardian): "Police
and the UK Border Agency are investigating a complaint by a 27-year-old
man who claims he was repeatedly punched by private security
guards before passing out as he was forced into a potentially
lethal position during a failed deportation." See also:
Liberty
brings judicial review of dangerous and excessive restraint policy (Liberty, press release)
EU: Extradition
injustice remains despite European ruling in Radu? Alex Tinsley (UK Human Rights Blog):
"The European Court of Justice’s Grand Chamber has
ruled that the Charter of Fundamental Rights does not allow refusal
to execute a European Arrest Warrant (EAW) on the basis that
the person was not heard by the issuing authority." See:
Judgment
in Case C-396/11 Radu [2013] ECR I0000
ITALY: Italy's
former spy chief sentenced to a decade in prison (New Europe): "The
former Italian intelligence chief, Nicolo Pollari, was sentenced
on 12 February to 10 years imprisonment for his involvement in
a secret CIA rendition case. In addition, the court in Milan
gave former SISMI [Italy's military intelligence agency] deputy
Marco Mancini nine years and sentenced three other staff members
to six years in jail each." See also: Ex-Italian
spy shocked at 10-year jail term and Court
orders abducted imam should receive one million euros (Gazzetta del Sud)
I.Coast
immigrant sets himself alight in Rome airport (Globalpost, link)
Germany: States
and corporations from Europe and beyond gather to discuss "police
in social networks", "ePolice" and "equipment
and armament"
Next week the 16th European Police
Congress will be held in Berlin, where representatives of internal
security authorities and corporations from Europe and beyond
will gather for a programme of events focused largely on policing
the internet, where the world of "digital romantics",
"moral hackers" and "cyber kiddies" has "turned
into operative and organised crime," according to the event's
organisers.
EU: European Commission Communication: Cybersecurity
Strategy of the European Union: An Open, Safe and Secure Cyberspace (JOIN 1-13, pdf). See:
Threats
in the EU cyberspace: expert reaction (link) and The
EU's cyber hodgepodge (DW, link)
UK: Warwick's
foreign staff may now see London without telling 'Big Brother'
(THE,
link)
EU-USA:
Data
protection law drafts copied straight from lobby papers, campaigners
claim
(Out-Law, link)
MALTA: Migrant's
death in van - Officer said he may have died 'of fright' (Times of Malta, link)
EU
bailouts: misery for old people, children, single mothers (euobserver, link)
FRANCE: Eviction
of Roma reaches a peak despite condemnations by the European
Committee of Social Rights
"In September 2012,
the European Committee of Social Rights found that France had
infringed the human rights of Roma migrants living in France
by failing to provide them decent living conditions. The decision
was made public on 21 January 2013, just days after the European
Association for the Defence of Human Rights (AEDH) published
figures showing that the number of evictions of Roma in France
has never been higher."
EU: Council of the European Union: Proposal
for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council
on the conditions of entry and residence of third-country nationals
for the purposes of seasonal employment (97 pages, 6312-13, pdf): Multi-column
document
and: First Common Civilian-Military Annual CSDP Lessons Learned and Best Practices Report for 2011 - Lessons of CSDP support to Security Sector Reform (pdf) and: European Union Exercise Programme 2013-2015 (pdf)
EU: European Commission: Draft
measure subject to regulatory procedure with scrutiny pursuant
to Article 4(5) of Directive 2002/58/EC on privacy and electronic
communications (Working document, pdf) and:
- Commission
Staff Working Document Impact Assessment: Accompanying the document
Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the
Council concerning measures to ensure a high level of network
and information security across the Union (SWD 32-13, pdf)
- Commssion
Staff Working Document: Executive Summary of the Impact Assessment:
Accompanying the document Proposal for a Directive of the European
Parliament and of the Council Concerning measures to ensure a
high level of network and information security across
the Union
(SWD 31-13, pdf)
EU: NEW DATA PROTECTION REGULATION: Council of the European Union:
Proposal
for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council
on theprotection of individuals with regard to the processing
of personal data and on the free movement of such data (General
Data Protection Regulation) (99 pages, 6278-13, pdf) Member States
positions from: Czech Republic, Spain, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands,
Poland, Portugal, Slovak Republic and the UK
EU: Council of the European Union: Proposal
for a Decision of the European Parliament and of the Council
on a Union Civil Protection Mechanism - Consideration of EP draft
amendments in preparation for the first trilogue (137 pages, 5916-13,
pdf) Multi-column document.
Italy
Jails Ex-Officials for Rendition (New York Times, link)
Judges
reject UK demand for new hearing on prisoners’ human rights
case
(Human Rights Europe, link): "Judges have turned down
a United Kingdom request for a new Grand Chamber hearing on a
case involving the human rights of prisoners. On 12 February,
the European Court of Human Rights announced it had rejected
the UK authorities’ request for the case James, Wells and
Lee v. the United Kingdom (nos. 25119/09, 57715/09 and 57877/09)
to be referred to its Grand Chamber."
Sri
Lankans expelled from UK allege torture after deportation to
Colombo - Freedom from Torture finds 15 failed asylum seekers
later won refugee status but Tory minister says torture claims
are unproven
(Guardian, link)
SWITZERLAND: Nestlé
must pay compensation for spying on NGO (Nonprofit Quarterly):
"As a result of a criminal suit filed more than four
years ago, a Swiss court last week ordered Nestlé and
the Swiss security company Securitas AG to pay compensation to
Attac for infiltrating and spying on the anti-globalization group"
See also Statewatch Coverage: Switzerland:
Private spy on mission for Nestle (database link)
EU: Meijers Committee: Letter
Meijers Committee on the recast of the Procedures Directive (COM
2011 319 final) (pdf); Letter
Meijers Committee on the implications of the recent judgment
of the ECHR Stamose v Bulgaria for visa liberation negotiations (pdf) and Memorandum
concerning the Dutch Coalition Agreement concluded between the
VVD (People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy) and the PvdA
(Labour Party) on 29 October 2012 (pdf)
Statewatch News Digest: 12 February 2013 (30 items)
EU
Data Protection: Proposed Amendments Written by US Lobbyists (Computerworld, link)
EU: Crystal
balls: internal security authorities want "technology foresight"
The European Union is to call for
the creation of an "internal security technology foresight
function" that would ensure "proactive involvement"
by law enforcement authorities with "research institutes
and industry", and spread "innovative ideas and projects"
amongst EU Member States and agencies such as Europol and Frontex.
This "foresight function" is intended to strengthen
the work of the European Network of Law Enforcement Technology
Services (ENLETS). Last year Statewatch revealed the existence
of an ENLETS "wish-list" drawn up by representatives
of Member States' police forces, which included the need for
research and pilot projects on drones, surveillance equipment,
devices to remotely stop vehicles, and non-lethal weapons.
DENMARK: Yes
Minister-law to hide political documents from the public (Wobbing.eu, link):
"Danish parliamentarians get ready to adopt a new access
law with politically sensitive documents kept secret by definition.
Undemocratic and outrageously arrogant, critics say about the
”Yes-Minister-law”."
EU
Treaties on Eur-Lex (link)
EU:
Protection
of human rights in the EU "rarely a priority", says
Human Rights Watch:
On 1 February, Human Rights Watch (HRW) published its annual
world report. The EU, which in the 2012 report was described
as "unwilling to prioritize human rights at home",[2]
was this year again given a bad assessment.
Statewatch News Digest: 7 February 2013 (40 items)
New
report: Denmark participated in CIA rendition programme (Copenhagen Post, link)
Poland
declines to answer court's questions on CIA jail (Reuters, link)
EU: European Commssion: Proposal
for a Directive on the prevention of the use of the financial
system for the purpose of money laundering and terrorist financing (COM 45-3-12, pdf)
EU: Privileged
access vs. public scrutiny - why lobbying transparency matters (Open Democracy, link)
and Journal of Contemporary European Research: Should
the European Commission enact a mandatory lobby register? (pdf)
EU: Some
thoughts on COMdocs (link): Draws attention to the time lag between
a Commission press release on a new proposal and access to the
full-text on EU-Lex which can be weeks later
Statewatch News Digest: 6 February 2013 (52 items)
EU: Briefing
note on OECD Complaints against Gamma International and Trovicor
in the UK and Germany (pdf):
"On 1st February 2013 Privacy International, together with fellow organisations, the European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights (“ECCHR”), Reporters Without Borders, the Bahrain Center for Human Rights and Bahrain Watch, filed a complaint with the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (“OECD”) National Contact Point (“NCP”) in the UK against Gamma International UK Ltd (“Gamma”), alleging that the company is in breach of the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises. A parallel complaint against Trovicor GmbH is being filed at the German NCP. The complaints examine evidence indicating that Gamma and Trovicor have exported intrusive surveillance technology and training to Bahrain."
USA: CIA
rendition: more than a quarter of countries 'offered covert support' (Guardian, link): "The
full extent of the CIA's extraordinary rendition programme has
been laid bare with the publication of a report showing there
is evidence that more than a quarter of the world's governments
covertly offered support." See also: Globalizing
Torture: CIA Secret Detention and Extraordinary Rendition and Full
report
(pdf)
EU-ECHR: Romania,
Bulgaria and Poland: the EU's most frequent violators of the
European Convention on Human Rights in 2012
Member states of the European Union
were found to have violated the European Convention on Human
Rights in 486 different cases last year. Cyprus had no cases
brought against it at all, while the three worst offenders were
Poland, with 56 judgements finding at least one violation, out
of 74 cases brought to the court; Bulgaria (58 judgements, 64
cases); and Romania (70 judgments, 79 cases).
EU: European Parliament study: Russia
and the common space on freedom, security and justice (pdf)
Hungarian
Jews flee to Austria amid upsurge of Anti-Semitism (Politics.hu, link)
EU: EUROPOL AND CEPOL TO MERGE: "the European Commission
has put forward the idea to merge CEPOL and EUROPOL. With 42
posts CEPOL is the second smallest agency. An important share
of its staff deals with administrative tasks stemming from the
Staff Regulations and the Financial Regulation. Further, UK's
Home Secretary has already informed CEPOL that the headquarter
agreement will end in spring 2014. In consequence, CEPOL is forced
to look for a new building. Additionally, meeting the ambitious
objective set by the Stockholm programme to train one third of
those law enforcement officials involved in international cooperation
CEPOL would need at minimum 12 additional posts to meet the objective
and to cover the development of the European Training Scheme
(ETS)." (Jutta Haug MEP)
Background on the proposed merger: Joint Statement signed by the European Parliament, the Council of the EU and the European Commission on decentralised agencies (19 July 2012, pdf) See also: The Common Approach was signed by the three institutions (see attachment) in July 2012 (pdf)
UK: Police
spies stole identities of dead children - Exclusive: Undercover
officers created aliases based on details found in birth and
death records, Guardian investigation reveals (Guardian, link):
"Britain's largest police force stole the identities of an estimated 80 dead children and issued fake passports in their names for use by undercover police officers. The Metropolitan police secretly authorised the practice for covert officers infiltrating protest groups without consulting or informing the children's parents. The details are revealed in an investigation by the Guardian, which has established how over three decades generations of police officers trawled through national birth and death records in search of suitable matches."
And see: Police spy: 'I thought, how would they feel about their son's name being used - 'Undercover officers were conflicted about 'jackal run' tactic of using identities of dead children See also: Police spies scandal: call for public inquiry - Former director of public prosecutions calls for inquiry after revelations that officers stole identities of dead children
EU: Council of the European Union: Visa lists and Intra-Corporate
Transferees
- Draft Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Council Regulation (EC) No 539/2001 listing the third countries whose nationals must be in possession of visas when crossing the external borders and those whose nationals are exempt from that requirement (Doc no: 5603-13, pdf): Related to trilogue meetings with the European Parliament: "The Annex contains a revised text for the reciprocity mechanism, based on replacing the reference to delegated acts in the previous text by a system with some degree of automaticity and including the use of implementing acts of the Council."
- Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on conditions of entry and residence of third-country nationals in the framework of an intra-corporate transfer (110 pages, 5573-13, pdf): Multi-column document showing: Commission proposal, the European Parliament's "Orientation vote", the Council position and Comments by the Council.
USA: BODY SCANNERS: Rapiscan
Backscatter Contract Terminated – Units to be Removed (TSA blog, link). Electronic
Privacy Information Center (EPIC) report: "TSA to Pull
'Naked' Body Scanners from All US Airports: The Transportation
Security Administration is ending the agency's contract with
backscatter x-ray device manufacturer Rapiscan. As a result,
all backscatter machines, which produce a detailed naked image
of air travelers, will be removed from US airports. The backscatter
x-ray scanners will be replaced by millimeter wave scanners,
a less-intrusive but still controversial scanning technology."
EU: Solidarity
or militarisation? Proposed 'solidarity clause' legislation criticised
for lack of clarity and "encouraging armament"
Proposed EU legislation that would
oblige EU institutions and Member States to provide assistance
to a Member State that is "the object of a terrorist attack
or the victim of a natural or man-made disaster" has been
criticised by MEPs who say that it "encourages armament"
and "paves the way for military interventions within the
EU." The claim, made by the MEPs Sabine Lösing and
Willy Meyer of the European United Left/Nordic Green Left group,
came in response to a report of the Parliament's Foreign Affairs
Committee in October last year that urged the Commission and
the High Representative of the EU for Foreign and Security Policy
to publish their proposal for implementation of Article 222 of
the Lisbon Treaty - the solidarity clause - "before the
end of 2012."
See also: Implementation of Article 222 TFEU (Solidarity Clause) - Views of the Austrian Delegation (pdf)
EU: European Parliament: Question to the European Commission:
Review
of liquids and body scanner rules (pdf)
UK: House of Commons Select Committee on Home Affairs: Independent
Police Complaints Commission (pdf). Press release:
"Watchdog woefully underequipped: IPCC leaves public frustrated and without faith in the police: The Home Affairs Committee will publish its Report on The Independent Police Complaints Commission on Friday 1 February 2013 at 00.01 (Eleventh Report, Session 2012-13, HC 494). The Committee finds that: the Commission is overloaded with appeal cases; serious cases involving police corruption or misconduct are left underinvestigated, while the Commission devotes resources to less serious complaints; and public trust continues to be undermined by the IPCC’s dependence on former officers and the investigative resources of police forces."
EU: Justice and Home Affairs: Table
of measures subject to Protocol 36 (pdf) List of 133 measures to be "Lisbonised"
by 2014 with links to documents.
GERMANY: Secret
government document reveals: German Federal Police plans to use
Gamma FinFisher spyware (Netzpolitik.org): "The German Federal Police
office has purchased the commercial Spyware toolkit FinFisher
of Eleman/Gamma Group. This is revealed by a secret document
of the Ministry of the Interior, which we are publishing exclusively.
Instead of legitimizing products used by authoritarian regimes
for the violation of human rights, the German state should restrict
the export of such state malware"
GREECE: Right-wing
politicians unite to form a new movement, Greeks' Initiative (Ekathimerini): "A
total of 21 former and serving right-wing politicians have come
together to form a new political movement called Greeks’
Initiative, it was announced on Tuesday"
Statewatch News Digest: 1 February 2013 (50 items)
January 2013
EU: DATA PROTECTION REGULATION:
- Council of the European Union: Proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data (General Data Protection Regulation) (Doc 165-29-12, pdf). The Council working on its negotiating position
- Chart comparing the 1995 Directive and the Proposed new Regulation (148 pages, pdf)
- Chart comparing the 1995 Directive and the Proposed new Regulation with Recitals (pdf)
An informal working group that seeks to "bring together good practice and advice to member states in relation to developing and using mobile ID devices for police and immigration services" is preparing to regroup during late March with a meeting in Dublin, organised in association with the Irish Presidency of the EU.
The decision to deport by charter flight two women who played key roles in recent protests at the Yarl's Wood immigration detention centre has provoked outrage amongst their supporters.
Statewatch News Digest: 29 January 2013 (43 items)
EU-USA: US
free to grab EU data on American clouds (euobserver, link)
EU: Two
legal systems in conflict; a perspective on the proposed EU data
rules and its possible consequences (wobbing.eu, link)
"Suggested new EU rules for data protection might not only ban blogs, Facebook updates, and tweets. Authorities will have to redact official archives by deleting names in documents. Member states are told to find their own way to secure fundamental rights."
EU: PRIVACY: The
Brussels Privacy Declaration (link):
"Privacy
is a fundamental human right, but today this right is widely
ignored. We are outraged.
- We are outraged, because we, the citizens, are now kept in
hundreds of databases, mostly without our knowledge or consent,
- over 1,200 companies specialise in trading our personal data,
mostly without our knowledge or consent,
- every time we browse the internet over 50 companies now monitor
every click, mostly without our knowledge or consent,
- we are constantly being categorised and judged by algorithms
and then treated according to the "perceived value"
we may or may not bring to business without our knowledge and
consent, and
- lobbying is currently replacing European citizens' voices and
manifest concerns."
Statewatch News Digest: 24 January 2013 (46 items)
UK: UN
Special Rapporteur calls for a "judge-led public inquiry"
into undercover police operations and condemns a number of other
police practices
A wide number of policing practices
in the UK have been condemned as "indiscriminate",
"disproportionate" and in contravention of human rights
standards by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right
to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, Maina Kiai,
who today concluded a visit to the country. He has called for
"a judge-led public inquiry into the Mark Kennedy matter,
and other related cases."
Immigration:
Italy summarily returning unaccompanied kids (ANSA Med, link)
Council
of Europe wants 'racist and anti-semitic' members ousted (euractiv, link): "The
parliamentary assembly of the Strasbourg-based Council of Europe
is considering a ban on some of its far-right members if they
are affiliated with parties that are “neo-Nazi, racist and
anti-Semitic".
EU: MEDIA: Report by High Level Group on Media Freedom and Pluralism:
A
free and pluralistic media to sustain European democracy (pdf) See also: EU
should act on press violations, report says (euobserver, link)
EU: Council of the European Union: Implementation
of the Council Framework Decision 2008/909/JHA on the application
of the principle of mutual recognition to judgments in criminal
matters imposing custodial sentences or measures involving deprivation
of liberty for the purpose of their enforcement in the European
Union - Information provided to the General Secretariat (pdf)
What
do you get when you cross a burrito with a drone? (New Statesman, link):
"An unusual little business idea recently highlighted
how blinkered governments have been in their deployment of drones
in recent years. Invented by three young developers, the Burrito
Bomber is a mini drone that tracks customers' locations via their
smartphones and drops a burrito into onto their doorsteps. Mini
aircraft flying around dropping takeaways out of the sky may
seem bizarre and unnecessary but the prospect of using the same
technology to deliver food and supplies to remote or war-torn
areas is promising."
Final
verdict of the International Migrants' Tribunal (link)
EU: Council of the European Union: LEA access to Eurodac: Multi-column
document showing the state of play in the trilogue discussion
between the Council and the European Parliament: 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 (EU)
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)
and to request comparisons with EURODAC data by Member States'
law enforcement authorities and Europol for law enforcement purposes
and amending Regulation (EU) No 1077/2011 establishing a European
Agency for the operational management of large-scale IT systems
in the area of freedom, security and justice (Recast version) (5403-13, 17 January,
2013, 229 pages, pdf). The 4th column gives the proposed "compromises".
EU: European Commission: Joint
Proposal for a Council Decision on the arrangements for the implementation
by the Union of the Solidarity clause (JOIN document no 39-12, pdf) from the
Commission and High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs
and Security Policy.
"Article
222 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU)
contains a new provision for a ‘Solidarity Clause’.
Under this provision the Union and its Member States must act
jointly in a spirit of solidarity if a Member State is the object
of a terrorist attack or the victim of a natural or man-made
disaster."
This requires a new provision affecting the EU Internal Security
Strategy, the Union Civil Protection Mechanism and the Civil
Protection Financial
Instrument, the EU Solidarity Fund; the health security initiative
for serious cross-border threats to health, crisis response and
analysis structures in the EEAS; and the Crisis Coordination
Arrangements in the Council.
The relevant structures are in the Commission (DG ECHO, HOME, SANCO, TAXUD etc.), or in EU decentralised agencies (FRONTEX, ECDC, EUROPOL, EMSA, EFSA, EMA etc.). The European External Action Service has at its disposal structures with situation awareness, intelligence or military expertise as well as the network of Delegations that may contribute to the response to threats or disasters in the territory of Member States or to crises with an external dimension.
Greece/Italy:
Detainees'
rights overrule absconding and rioting charges, courts rule
Two recent judgments in Italy and
Greece have found detainees innocent of the charges that were
brought against them by the local authorities following escape
from one migration detention centre and rioting in another. Courts
ruled that the actions of detained migrants in opposing their
detention conditions were legitimate.
Statewatch News Digest: 21 January 2013 (31 items)
UK:
"Off
pockets" and "anti-drone hoodies": Personal privacy
meets high fashion
A New York-based artist has developed
a range of clothing and accessories that can thwart thermal imaging
cameras and instantly "zero out" mobile phone signals,
making them untraceable, in an attempt to raise awareness of
mass surveillance and explore ways for individuals to protect
their privacy.
EU: European Data Protection Supervisor: EDPS
Inventory 2013: data protection is essential across all EU policy
areas
(Press release, pdf) and Inventory for
2013
(pdf)
European Parliament:Hungary: Working
Document no 1: Judiciary (pdf) and Working
Document no 3: Media (pdf)
EU IRISS project: Increasing resilience: in surveillance societies:
Surveillance,
fighting crime and violence report (415 pages, link)
UK: Outrage
as High Court permits secrecy over undercover policing (Police spies out of
lives, link): "The High Court has today granted an application
by the Metropolitan Police for a secret hearing over the claims
brought against them under the Human Rights Act, arising from
undercover officers engaging in intimate long term relationships
with women whilst undercover. The Claimants, who were involved
in protest movements, were deceived into intimate sexual relationships
by officers, including Mark Kennedy." Court
judgment
(pdf) and Court
Summary
(pdf)
UK: Police
demand DNA samples from gay men: Men convicted of victimless
homosexual offences three decades ago are threatened with arrest
if they refuse to provide samples for the national DNA database (New Statesman, link)
See also: "Operation Nutmeg": Cold
case hope as police set out to collect 12,000 DNA samples (BBC News, link)
High
Velocity DNA Tagging System Launched By UK's Leading Forensic
Marking Company (link) and High
velocity DNA tagging system unveiled by Selectamark (Info4 Security, link)
Statewatch News Digest: 17 January 2013 (29 items)
EU: Commission
defends privileged access for big business in court (Corporate Observatory
Europe, link)
How
Washington helped foster the Islamist uprising in Mali (New Internationalist,
link)
EU:
Frontex
chief looks beyond EU borders (euobserver, link)
UK: NEW EU DATA PROTECTION REGULATION: Scale
of UK Government’s opposition to the proposed Data Protection
Regulation and Directive made absolutely clear (Hawktalk, link).
See: House of Commons: Justice Committee: The Committee's opinion on the European Union Data Protection framework proposals (128 pages, pdf) and Government response to Justice Select Committee’s opinion on the European Union Data Protection framework proposals (pdf)
EU Council of the European Union: Eurosur, Eurodac and Intra-corporare
transferees
Multi-column documents produced during 1st reading trilogue discussions with the European Parliament giving the original proposal, the position of the European Parliament and "compromise" suggestions:
- LEAs acess to Eurodac: Council on the establishment of 'EURODAC' for the comparison of fingerprints for the effective application of Regulation (EU) 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) and to request comparisons with EURODAC data by Member States' law enforcement authorities and Europol for law enforcement purposes and amending Regulation (EU) No 1077/2011 stablishing a European Agency for the operational management of large-scale IT systems in the area of freedom, security and justice (Recast version) (223 pages, 5515-13, pdf) For the first time the European Parliament's position is public
- EUROSUR: Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing the European Border Surveillance System (EUROSUR) (77 pages, pdf)
- ICT: Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on conditions of entry and residence of third-country nationals in the framework of an intra-corporate transfer (109 pages,5106-13, pdf)
Statewatch News Digest: 15 January 2013 (35 items)
EU Council of the European Union: Informal Justice and Home Affairs
(JHA) Council in Dublin on 17-18 January 2013: Agenda (pdf)
Background Papers:
- Links
between internal security and economic growth (pdf)
- Migration
and Mobility for Growth (pdf)
- To be discussed at a "Working Lunch": EU
action to protect freedom of movement for EU Citizens and social
integration by encouraging effective action and enhancing cooperation
between justice systems in countering hate crime, racism, anti-Semitism,
xenophobia and homophobia (pdf)
- Greek
National Action Plan on Asylum and Migration Management (pdf)
- Data Protection – certain key issues (pdf)
EU: European Investigation Order:
- Council of the European Union: Initiative of the Kingdom of Belgium, the Republic of Bulgaria, the Republic of Estonia, the Kingdom of Spain, the Republic of Austria, the Republic of Slovenia and the Kingdom of Sweden for a Directive regarding the European Investigation Order in criminal matters (16120-12, pdf) Council discussion on developing its position in response to 1st reading trilogue with the European Parliament, including "controversial issues" And see: earlier Council discussion prior to trilogues (9445-12, pdf)
- European Parliament: Orientation Vote: on the adoption of a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council regarding the European Investigation Order in criminal matters (pdf) prior to enter 1st reading trilogie meetings with the Council.
- Original Council proposal for the EIO prposed by eight Member States in April 2010 (pdf)
EU: Commission
makes €50 million available for the development of "big
brother" PNR databases - before legislation has even been
agreed: One of the
most controversial pieces of EU legislation currently on the
table is the proposed EU-Passenger Name Record (PNR) directive,
which would require the establishment throughout the Member States
of systems for collecting, storing and analysing vast amounts
of personal data from people flying into (and possibly within)
Europe, with the stated purpose of preventing, detecting, investigating
and prosecuting terrorist offences and serious crime.
UK: Getting
answers from the police on undercover deployments "will
be a long process"
Holding the police accountable for
possible misconduct during undercover deployments "will
be a long process" and "take perseverance," according
to Jenny Jones, the Deputy Chair of the London Assembly's Police
and Crime Committee. Jones has repeatedly questioned senior officers
from the Metropolitan Police on undercover deployments, which
received widespread attention in January 2011 following revelations
about the activities of undercover police officer Mark Kennedy,
but meaningful answers have not always been forthcoming.
UK: Report
calls for the abolition of London's "paramilitary"
riot squad due to poor relations with young people: A report by Jenny Jones, a Green Party
member of London's local government body has called for the abolition
of the Territorial Support Group (TSG), a wing of London's Metropolitan
Police force most widely known for its role in public order policing,
with Jones on record as saying the unit acts like a "paramilitary
body".
EU: Council of the European Union: Aviation security and Migration
"pressures"
- Aviation Security against Terrorist Threats - Conclusions of the conference of 31 October 2012, Nicosia, Cyprus (16252-12, pdf)
- Implementation of the Common Framework for genuine and practical solidarity towards Member States facing particular pressures on their asylum systems including through mixed migration flows - Follow up/update (15955-rev-1-12, pdf) and Previous draft (15955-12, pdf)
Article: Extension
of Mobility Partnerships with Euro-Mediterranean Partners (pdf) by Marie Martin.
See also: 2012
Yearbook on Mediterranean policies (link)
EU: VISA LIBERALISATION: Meijers Committee letter to Commissioner:
Cecilia
Malmström, Commissioner for Home Affairs: Regarding Letter
Meijers Committee on the implications of the recent judgment
of the ECHR Stamose v Bulgaria for visa liberation negotiations (pdf)
Statewatch News Digest: 11 January 2013 (28 items)
EU-UK: European
Ombudsman: Decision of the European Ombudsman closing his inquiry
into complaint 2293/2008/(BB)(FOR)TN against the European Commission (link to Decision) and
Press
release: Ombudsman criticises Commission's refusal to disclose
documents on UK opt-out from Charter of Fundamental Rights (pdf) See also: Commission's
failure to properly justify the non-disclosure of UK documents
an act of serious maladministration, rules EU watchdog (Out-Law.com)
The
Frightening Hungarian Crackdown (The New Yorker, link)
EU: Council of the European Union: Eurodac, Seasonal workers,
EUROSUR, COSI & Security Industry, Prum & Turkey and
visas
- EURODAC: Note providing additional evidence for the necessity of law enforcement access to EURODAC on the basis of contributions by the German, the Netherlands and the Austrian delegations (pdf) See also: European Parliament's Civil Liberties Committee adopts proposal giving law enforcement authorities and Europol access to Eurodac
- SEASONAL WORKERS: Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on the conditions of entry and residence of third-country nationals for the purposes of seasonal employments (16655-12, pdf) and Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on the conditions of entry and residence of third-country nationals for the purposes of seasonal employment [First reading] - Mandate for negotiations with the European Parliament (17100-12, pdf)
- Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing the European Border Surveillance System (EUROSUR) (16508-12, pdf) Council position to "negotiate" with the European Parliament
- COSI (Standing Committee on operational cooperation on internal security: Security-related research and industrial policy - issues to be discussed on user involvement (16538-12, pdf)
- PRUM: Implementation of the provisions on information exchange of the "Prüm Decisions" - overview of documents and procedures - overview of declarations - state of play of implementation of automated data exchange (5086-rev 8-12, pdf)
- TURKEY-VISAS: RELATIONS WITH TURKEY: Broader dialogue and cooperation framework on Justice and Home Affairs - Roadmap towards a visa-free regime (28 pages, 16929-12, pdf) Remarkably long list of obligations
Privacy
by Design?: Let’s be smart and implement it?! (link)
Statewatch News Digest: 9 January 2013 (26 items)
Closing
Europe’s Borders Becomes Big Business (Inter Press Service,
link)
EU: NEW REGULATION ON DATA PROTECTION: European Parliament: DRAFT
REPORT: on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament
and of the Council on the protection of individual with regard
to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of
such data (General Data Protection Regulation) (COM(2012)0011
– C7-0025/2012 – 2012/0011(COD)) Committee on Civil
Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs: Rapporteur: Jan Philipp
Albrecht
(pdf) and Commission proposal: Proposal
for a Regulation on the protection of individuals with regard
to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of
such data (General Data Protection Regulation) (pdf) See Comments by
EDRI: European
Parliament Data protection draft – compromise or compromised?
NEW DIRECTIVE ON DATA PROTECTION AND LEAs: DRAFT REPORT: on the proposal for a directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data by competent authorities for the purposes of prevention, investigation, detection or prosecution of criminal offences or the execution of criminal penalties, and the free movement of such data (COM(2012)0010 – C7-0024/2012 – 2012/0010(COD)) Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs: Rapporteur: Dimitrios Droutsas (pdf) See: Commission proposal: Proposal for a Directive on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data by competent authorities for the purposes of prevention, investigation, detection or prosecution of criminal offences or the execution of criminal penalties, and the free movement of such data (pdf) For background see: Observatory on data protection and law enforcement agencies in the EU
Rheinmetall
demos laser that can shoot down drones (BBC News, link)
Apartheid
In Italy? A Sicilian City's Proposal For Immigrant-Only Buses (Worldcrunch, link)
EU: Council of the European Union: Asylum procedures, Schengen
evaluation, Internal border controls & EU law
- Asylum procedures: Amended proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on common procedures for granting and withdrawing international protection status (Recast) [First reading] (17678-12, pdf)
- Asylum procedures: follow-up: Amended proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on common procedures for granting and withdrawing international protection status (Recast) [First reading] - Preparation of the seventh informal trilogue (17698-12, pdf)
- Schengen evaluation: Proposal for a Council Regulation on the establishment of an evaluation mechanism to verify the application of the Schengen acquis (11846-rev-3-12, pdf). Council "compromise" during "informal" trilogues with the European Parliament
- Internal borders: Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Regulation (EC) No 562/2006 in order to provide for common rules on the temporary reintroduction of border control at internal borders in exceptional circumstances - Revised draft compromise text (6161-rev-6-12, pdf) Council "compromise" during "informal" trilogues" with the European Parliament and see also 6161-rev-5-12 (pdf)
- Implementation of EU law: 29th Annual report on monitoring the application of EU Law - Commission staff working document = situation per member state (18034-add-2-12, pdf): JHA pages 9-10.
EU: Europol:
"4x4" intelligence handling codes includes "dodgy
data"
The EU's police office, Europol, is currently drawing up a report - the Serious Organised Crime Threat Assessment (SOCTA) - that will inform "political priorities, strategic goals and operational action plans" from 2013 to 2017, as part of the EU Policy Cycle on serious and organised crime. However, documents outlining the way in which Europol puts the report together indicate that the agency is willing to make use of data that, judged by its own assessment methods, is to be considered "not confirmed".
EU: Statewatch Analysis: EU Immigration
and Asylum Law in 2012: The Year of Living Ineffectually (pdf) by Professor Steve
Peers, University of Essex:
"Several years ago, the EU set itself the deadline of 2010 - later postponed to 2012 - for completing the second phase of the Common European Asylum System. In the event, it has largely failed to meet this deadline. Moreover, almost no other EU immigration legislation was formally adopted in 2012."
Migrant
workers face 'severe exploitation' in Italy's farm sector( (ecologist, link)
UK: Schedule
7 terror laws used to interrogate activists (NETPOL, link): "There
is now abundant evidence that the police are using terrorism
powers to stop and question activists on their political activities
when they pass through UK ports. It is undoubtedly very helpful
to the police that the draconian powers introduced by Schedule
7 of the Terrorism Act 2000 provide no right to silence –
a refusal to answer questions can lead to a criminal conviction.
The powers are also hugely intimidating – people can be
detained for up to nine hours and have their DNA and fingerprints
taken. To top it all, no ‘reasonable suspicion’ is
needed – the police and border authorities can stop whoever
they wish. What more could ‘total policing’ wish for?
Covert policing operations in Northern Ireland are effectively run by a "parallel police force" dominated by MI5 that is answerable to government ministers in London rather than domestic officials, according to a new report by the Committee on the Administration of Justice (CAJ).
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