What's New
on the
Statewatch website - archive: 2006
December
2006
EU: Documentation - update: Visas, trafficking and policing
football matches
- Draft Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning the Visa Information System (VIS) and the exchange of data between Member States on short-stay visas (as at 20 December 2006)
- Action Plan on trafficking in human beings (December 2006)
- Revised policing-football handbook adopted (OJ) (full-ext, pdf) Defines: "A person, known or not, who can be regarded as posing a possible risk to public order or anti social behaviour, whether planned or spontaneous, at or in connection with a football event" Point 4.7 ask for information on fans' "Reactions to decisions of the referee" and 6.8 asks for information on fans: "Political way of thinking"
EU: German Council Presidency:
- Council
meetings timetable
-
Provisional
agendas for Council of ministers meetings - Justice and Home Affairs,
pages 24-30
- Programme
on Police and Judicial Co-operation
UK: First
target for fingerprinting to be foreign nationals
EU: Driving licence Directive agreed: Full-text (pdf) with following:
Amendments (pdf). This will introduce
a uniform credit-card-like licence valid for only 10 years. A
number of countries issue licences for life - Germany, Austria,
France, Belgium and, until recently, the UK where licences for
most holders are still valid up to the age of 70 years old. Now
the UK only issues 10 year card licences because: "Your
photocard driving licence is valid for a maximum of 10 years,
to ensure that your photograph is kept up to date with your true
likeness."
Two other significant changes will allow member states to require medical checks from the age of 50 years old and the introduction of a microchip containing additional data is "optional". The danger is that as new technology becomes cheaply available the microchip will become the norm and the data held on it extended.
UK: Government caves in on NHS patient database: Patients to
be allowed to request that their personal medical records are
not put on national database: Minister
admits U-turn on NHS database amid privacy fears and How
patients' protests forced a rethink on NHS computer records (Guardian, links)
EU-CIA Inquiry: Furious exchange of letters between Mr
Solana (Council of the European Union) and the European
Parliament's Inquiry chair (French) and Statewatch
translation
(English, pdf)
EU: Update (the first for several years) concerning Member States'
application of the EC's visa list
Regulation
(pdf)
EU: European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia report
on: Muslims
in the EU: Discrimination and Islamophobia
EU: Commission
Recommendation establishing a common "Practical Handbook
for Border Guards (Schengen Handbook)" to be used by Member
States' competent authorities when carrying out the border control
of persons
(COM 5186/2006, 81pages)
UK: The
police National DNA Database - Now is the time to have your say (from Genewatch, pdf)
EU: European Data Protection Supervisor Opinion on: Common
Consular Instructions (pdf) The EDPS underlines that it is a political
decision rather than a purely technical one to determine from
which age fingerprints shall be collected. This should not be
based entirely on arguments of feasibility. Especially the mandatory
fingerprinting of all children aged 6+ raises also ethical questions.
The EDPS moreover recalls that all biometric identification systems
are inherently imperfect and that the system therefore must provide
for adequate fallback solutions. See: Statewatch coverage: EU:Fingerprinting
of children - the debate goes on: Spain taking fingerprints and facial
images from children at birth; Czech Republic taking fingerprints
from 5 and facial images from birth; Latvia and France in favour
of fingerprints from 6 and facial images from birth. EU
states will be free to fingerprint children from day one of their
life as soon as it is technologically possible: Council Presidency proposed
in June 2006 that there should be the compulsory fingerprinting
of children from the age of 12 year old.
EU: Council Presidency admits that the Council of the European
Union (25 governments) and the European Commission have known
about the US's "Automated Targeting System" (ATS) profiling
all visitors since "September 2005": Full-text
of EU Presidency statement to the European Parliament.The ATS issues computer-generated
risk-scores in related to terrorism and crime on everyone going
in and out of the USA for at least four years - this can result
in refusal to allow travel, questioning, searches and surveillance
The ATS came to public attention in the USA when the Homeland Security Department posted a Notice on the Federal Register in November 2006 - showing that "targeting" extended beyond cargo to people. US General Accountability Office report on cargo The Federal Notice shows that Passenger Name Record (PNR) data on travellers from the EU is included in the ATS together with data from public and private sources. Moreover it states that ATS data can be shared with a multitude of federal, state and local agencies and foreign governments. The Homeland Security Department also issues a: Privacy Impact Assessment for the Automated Targeting System on 22 November 2006.
US privacy and civil liberties groups in the USA says that the ATS is illegal. Travellers are not allowed to see their records nor can they "contest the contents": Comments of 30 organisations and 16 experts
See also: Statewatch's Observatory on the exchange of data on passengers (PNR) with USA
Tony Bunyan, Statewatch editor, comments:
"The EU Presidency statement that the Council and Commission have know about the ATS for over a year is quite extraordinary. During this period they renegotiated the EU-USA PNR agreement claiming it was on the same terms as that agreed in 2004 when they clearly knew it was not. The Council and the Commission knew about it but did nothing until the existence of the ATS was made public and now they have asked for "clarification". What is required is the suspension of the PNR agreement until the situation is clarified".
UK: Court victory for Fairford protesters. The House of Lords
Appeal Court ruled that the police were were wrong to detain
two coachloads of 120 people on their way to protest at RAF Fairford
in Gloucestershire in March 2003. Their lawyer told the Law Lords
that people had the right to demonstrate peacefully on matter
of great public interest. Law Lords judgment (full-text, pdf) Statement
from Fairford Coach Action campaign (pdf) Statement
from Bindmans
(pdf)
Tony Bunyan, Statewatch editor, comments: "This is a very important ruling. The police have taken upon themselves the power to stop demonstrators assembling on a number of occasions and have got away with it. It is not for the police to decide who can protest and who cannot, their job is to uphold the law when it is breached and not to pre-emptively curtail a basic right in a democratic society".
EU-ECJ: The Court of First Instance has found against the Council
of the European Union on the inclusion of OMPI on the EU's list
of groups subject to the freezing of funds: Court
judgment
(pdf) Council
"Factsheet" (pdf)
EU: The
“principle of availability” Statewatch analysis by Tony Bunyan.
The free market in access to data/intelligence will rely on “self-regulation”
by the law enforcement agencies and make accountability almost
meaningless.
EU: Draft
Council Resolution on "information exchange on the expulsion
of radical preachers inciting violence and racial hatred" (EU doc no: 15664/06).
While the title of the Council document speaks of "radical
preachers" the text in clause 1 refers to an "expelled
third country national(s)" who are to be denied re-entry
by all EU states. This covers people expelled: "on the grounds
of behaviour linked to terrorist activities or constituting acts
of explicit and deliberate provocation of discrimination, hatred
or violence" against specific groups - clearly this is intended
to exclude permanently those expelled against whom criminal charges
could not be brought.
New Statewatch publication: Border Wars and Asylum Crimes
by Frances Webber. When the Statewatch pamphlet "Crimes
of Arrival" by the same author was written, in 1995, the
title was a metaphor for the way the British government, in common
with other European governments, treated migrants and especially,
asylum seekers. Now, a decade on, that title describes a literal
truth: Order
publication
(£10, 36 pages, A4)
"The exclusionary imperatives of reduction of numbers arriving and an increase in those removed are driving European asylum policy steadily to a penal model. This had its beginnings in the early 1980s, and in 1992, the Ad Hoc Committee formulating EU asylum policy pre-Maastricht stated its view that intercontinental movement to seek asylum was 'unlawful'. Now, the whole panoply of criminal powers, including the regular use of the criminal law, segregation from society, mass detention, fingerprinting and electronic tagging, is brought to bear on asylum claimants. Immigration police have all the powers and none of the accountability of 'normal' police. Private sector guards on minimum wages are recruited to keep asylum claimants in order and to deport them, and may use 'reasonable force' in doing so.
There is a frightening continuity between the treatment of asylum claimants and that of terrorist suspects. In the name of the defence of our way of life and our enlightenment values from attack by terrorists or by poor migrants, that way of life is being destroyed by creeping authoritarianism, and those values - amongst which the most important is the universality of human rights - betrayed."
The War on Freedom and Democracy, edited by Tony Bunyan.
Published in 2006 by Spokesman books. Order publication (Paperback,
£10.99). These essays were prepared for the launch of the
European Civil Liberties Network in October 2005. The passage
of time since then had served to emphasise the relevance of the
issues raised and the analyses provided. Contributors: Tony Bunyan,
Heiner Busch, Deirdre Curtin, Liz Fekete, Balthasar Glatti, Ben
Hayes, Paddy Hillyard, Gus Hosein, Gergana Jouleva, Alexander
Kashumov, Virginia Mantouvalou, Thomas Mathiesen, Steve Peers,
Max Rowlands, Phil Scraton, A. Sivanandan, Lorenzo Trucco and
Aidan White. Order
Publication
Friends of Statewatch launched - support our work A message from our chair,
Gareth Peirce:
"In routinely placing complex policies and increased state powers in the public domain, Statewatch performs a function that no other organisation fulfils. One is driven to wonder what it could have accomplished, and could accomplish in the future, were it to have even a tiny percentage of the resources enjoyed by other organisations.
It is clear that Statewatch's only and continuing priority is to remain faithful to its raison d'etré, namely to be principled, proactive and honest. In this age of heightened and increasingly repressive consolidation of state powers, there is no alternative than to have in place an experienced organisation which regards its duty to monitor and to give voice, constantly, to what it observes."
EU: Commission Green Paper on: Diplomatic
and consular protection of Union citizens in third countries COM (2006) 712
EU: Commission Communication on: Reinforcing
the management of the European Union's Southern Maritime Borders COM(2006) 733 final
EU: Council Presidency report on: Report on the review
of The Hague Programme
EU: Commission Communication on: The Global
Approach to Migration one year on: Towards a comprehensive European
migration policy COM(2006) 735
Council
of Europe: Report
of the Group of Wise Persons to the Committee of Ministers on the long-term effectiveness
of the ECHR control mechanism
Scotland-Special
Branch: Tayside
Special Branch Community Contact Unit - a Briefing from Scotland
Against Criminalising Communities See: Scotland Against Criminalising
Communities
(link)
EU: Justice and Home Affairs Council, Brussels, 4-5 December
2006: Press
release
(pdf)
Background Note (pdf) "A" Point agenda
(adopted
without discussion) plus:
- Council
draft proposal on the Fundamental Human Rights Agency (29 November), Draft
proposal
(10 November with member state positions) and see: European
Voice
(link)
- Draft
conclusions on the Hague programme
- Visa
list amendments
EU:
Three EU Council Presidencies programme: 18-month
programme on asylum, immigration, visa and border policy
UK:
Biometric trials start at Heathrow (BBC, link)
Netherlands: Dutch
senate endorses counter-terrorism powers (link)
USA: Millions
assigned terror risk score on trips to the US - Information
gleaned from travellers to build profiles (Guardian, link)
EU: Biometric EU ID cards by the back door: The Justice
and Home Affairs Council on 4-5 December is to adopt - without
debate - a Resolution on "security standards" for national
identity cards across the EU: Draft Resolution: EU doc
no: 15356/06
The EU does not have the legal power to impose "security
standards" and biometrics on national ID cards. However,
this "non-binding" Resolution opens the way (enables)
for biometrics to be taken (with the same standards as already
agreed for EU passports, that is, fingerprints) and be added
to ID cards (together with other "optional" biometrics)
where the ID cards are used for "travel purposes",
which they are throughout the Schengen area. As this is a so-called
"non-binding" ("soft law") measure national
and European parliaments (let alone civil society) have no say.
See also: previous report: EU: Biometrics and national ID cards back on the table: despite admitting that "there is no legal basis in the Treaty governing these issues" the EU is still pushing for harmonisation on this highly contentious issue.
EU-CIA-RENDITION - European Parliament Inquiry: Draft
report of the year-long inquiry (pdf)
This is backed by two substantive working documents from the European Parliament committee of inquiry: On extraordinary rendition (Working documents no 7, including details of cases considered) and On the companies linked to the CIA, aircraft used by the CIA and the European countries in which CIA aircraft have made stopovers (Working document no 8, 64 pages) See for full background and documentation: Statewatch's Observatory on CIA rendition
November 2006
EU: European Data
Protection Supervisor (EDPS) issues a 2nd, critical, Opinion
on the Council's draft proposal on data protection on police
and judicial issues: Full-text of
opinion
(pdf)
"The texts currently being discussed within the Council do not incorporate the amendments proposed by the European Parliament, nor the opinions of the EDPS and of the Conference of European Data Protection Authorities. On the contrary, in quite a few cases provisions in the Commission proposal, offering safeguards to the citizens, are deleted or substantially weakened.
As a result, there is a substantial risk that the level of protection will be lower than the level of protection afforded under Directive 95/46/EC or even under the more generally formulated Council of Europe Convention No 108 which is binding on the Member States" (emphasis in original)
For full background and documentation see Statewatch's: Observatory on data protection in police and judicial matters
UK: Damning
report on Harmondsworth detention centre by HM Chief Inspector
of Prisons (pdf)
Northern Ireland: Report
of the independent international panel on alleged collusion in
sectarian killings in Northern Ireland (Pat Finucane Centre, link)
EU: Implementation of EU Action Plan to combat terrorism: 1)
A useful summary of the: Implementation
of the legislative instruments as at 24 November 2006 and 2) Six
monthly report on the Action Plan to combat terrorism this is a commentary
and includes the following: a) progress on implementing the European
arrest warrant has been "slow and uneven" and progress
"slow and uncertain" on the European Evidence Warrant
proposal and on cross-border police cooperation - noting that
these proposals "have a wider application than counter terrorism";
b) Eighteen member states, plus Norway, Iceland and Switzerland,
have started introducing RFID chips with a copy of the normal
passport photo (not, as stated, a "biometric passport");
c) a budget of 1400 million euro has been earmarked for "security-related
research"; and d) discussions in the Council on the "principle
of availability" have been "suspended" as the
incoming German Council Presidency wants to incorporate "aspects
of the Prum Treaty into the Union framework" - Comment:
discussion on the Commission proposal for the "principle
of availability" may have been suspended but is it contaminating
a whole series of individual measures
EU-Brussels seminar organised by the Government of Quebec on:
Transparency,
Institutions and Journalism: Information access in Québec
and in the European Institutions - programme (pdf) To
register
(link) Speakers: Paul-André Comeau (École nationale
d’administration publique, Québec), Jacques Saint-Laurent
(Commission d’accès à l’information du
Québec), Jakob Thomsen (European Commission General Secretariat),
Kathleen Lévesque (journalist at the Daily Le Devoir,(Montréal),
Marc Gruber (International Federation of Journalists), Jean Quatremer
(European correspondent for Libération in Brussels), Tony
Bunyan (Statewatch), Christos Sirros (Délégué
général du Québec à Bruxelles).
EU-CIA-RENDITION: Two substantive working documents from the
European Parliament committee of inquiry: On
extraordinary rendition (Working documents no 7, including details of
cases considered) and On the companies
linked to the CIA, aircraft used by the CIA and the European
countries in which CIA aircraft have made stopovers (Working document no
8, 64 pages) See for full background and documentation: Statewatch's
Observatory on CIA rendition
EU-SWIFT: Article 29 Data Protection Working Party has ruled
that SWIFT operated in breach of EU privacy law by passing financial
data to the USA: Adopted
Opinion
(pdf) Press
release
(pdf)
Australia: The
report of the People's Inquiry into immigration detention in
Australia
(link, pdf)
EU: Observatory
on data protection in police and judicial matters - updated with the latest
draft (22 November) plus
Declaration
by the European Data Protection Authorities, 2 November 2006 call on: "the
Member States to respect and strengthen the civil liberties of
the citizens living in the EU to establish an adequate system
of data protection arrangements guaranteeing a high and equivalent
standard of data protection applicable to all data processing
for law enforcement purposes."
EU-CIA-Inquiry: Former
Guantanamo detainee meets MEPs investigating CIA renditions (European Parliament
press release). "When Murat Kurnaz - a German resident of
Turkish origin - travelled to Pakistan in late 2001 to "find
himself and deepen his faith", he told MEPs on Wednesday,
he was arrested by the Pakistani police. "They caught me
and sold me to the Americans for 3,000 or 5,000 dollars,"
he said. Mr Kurnaz was transferred to a prison in Afghanistan
and later flown to Guantanamo, where he remained until August
this year when he was released without charge. See also: Statewatch's
Observatory on CIA rendition
UK: Protecting
Children’s Personal Information: ICO Issues Paper (Information Commissioner's
Office, pdf). Child
database "will ruin family privacy" (Daily Telegraph, link)
Databases
could be danger to young, says study (Guardian, link)
Poland: Report
on detention centres
(International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights)
EU: The European Commission adopted changes to the SIRENE manual
on 22 September. This governs the transfer of data/files from
national Sirene offices after a search on the Schengen Information
System (SIS):
Commission Decision: 757/2006
Commission
Decision: 758/2007
A Belgian weekly magazine published last week the testimony of
4 guards working in a Belgian detention center. They report very
serious practices which qualify as inhuman or degrading treatments:
Full
report
(French, pdf)
EU: Observatory
on data protection in police and judicial matters - updated with the latest
drafts (17 November) and questions
UK: Article 19 meeting: Panel discussion:
Tuesday, 21 November 2006: The Forbidden Zone: Environmental
Information denied in Russia: A discussion about environmental
secrecy in Russia in the context of declining freedom of information
and expression (pdf)
Shetland:
An
accolade for the local community (Shetland News, link) 17 November 2006.
The community led campaign to prevent the deportation of Lerwick
man Sakchai Makao back to his native Thailand was honoured last
night at a ceremony in Glasgow. See also: Young Shetland man
of Thai origin wins appeal against deportation under Home Office
crackdown: Shetland
News
(link)
UK: Cracked
it! Three million Britons have been issued with the new
hi-tech passport, designed to frustrate terrorists and fraudsters.
So why did Steve Boggan and a friendly computer expert find it
so easy to break the security codes? (Guardian, link)
Malta:
British
High Commission issues first (real) biometric visa (press release) Background
Ottawa
Principles on Anti-terrorism and Human Rights (full-text, pdf) In
June 2006, experts on human rights and terrorism met in their
individual capacities at the Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa,
Ottawa, Canada to develop the following Principles on Anti-terrorism
and Human Rights. They shared a common view that the preservation
of human rights – not least the right to life – is
the central motivator of anti-terrorism. They also believed that
human rights constitute an elemental and immutable constraint
on how anti-terrorism is conducted. The struggle for collective
security must not be an assault on the individual’s life,
liberty and security of the person. This document is the product
of their deliberations
UK: Joint Human Right Committee report: The
Human Rights Act: the Department of Constitutional Affairs and
Home Office Reviews (pdf).
EU-CIA-RENDITION: What
happened at dinner?
EU: European Commission: Recommendation
establishing a common "Practical Handbook for Border Guards
(Schengen Handbook)" to be used by Member States' competent
authorities when carrying out the border control of persons (pdf, COM 5186)
UK: The
Rules of the Game - Terrorism, Community and Human Rights by Andrew
Blick, Tufyal Choudhury and Stuart Weir. A report by Democratic
Audit for the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust
Denmark: Rebellion: Copenhagen International
Conference: Anti-terrorism legislation, political rights and
international solidarity Saturday 18 November 2006
Rebellion in Denmark – an overview
Arms
without borders - report from Amnesty Interntional, IANSA and
Oxfam on: Why a globalised trade needs global controls
Germany: Bundesrat
gives the green light to identity number (link, Heise online)
"All citizens of
the Federal Republic, toddlers and octogenarians included, will
hence from July 2007 onwards be assigned an identity number by
the Federal Central Tax Office. The hitherto dispersed data stocks
at some 5,500 registration offices encompassing the approximately
80 million persons registered in Germany will thereafter for
the first time be managed centrally"
UK: Speech by Sir Ian Blair, Commissioner of the Metropolitan
Police, 11 November 2006 in Berlin: Urban
Age Summit Speech on terrorism and crime
UK: Campaigner
Against American Bases Walks Free
UK: Speech by the Director-General of MI5 (the Security Service)
on: "The international terrorist threat to the UK"
on 9 November 2006: Full-text of
speech
(pdf) Commentary: MI5:
30 terror plots being planned in UK - Intelligence chief says
200 networks currently under surveillance, Richard Norton-Taylor
(Guardian, link)
UK: Legislative
and Regulatory Reform Act 2006 becomes law (pdf)
Nuffield Council on Bioethics: Launch of consultation
on forensic use of bioinformation (pdf) The Council would like to hear
about your views on a number of questions raised by the ethical
issues surrounding the forensic use of bioinformation.
CIA-Rendition: European Commission for Democracy through Law
(Venice Commission) “Extraordinary
rendition - a European Perspective" speech by Olivier Dutheillet
de Lamothe (Substitute member, France) (Cardozo School of Law,
25 September 2006 - "Bauer Lecture")
EU: Annual
report of the UK House of Lords Select Committee on the European
Union
Sweden: UN Human Rights Committee finds that Sweden broke the
international prohibition against torture. The case concerned
the rendition of two Egyptians from Sweden 2001 by undercover
US and Egyptian agents. The UN Committee also states that the
treatment of the two men on Swedish soil (Bromma Airport in Sweden)
in connection with the rendition was a breach of the ban on torture
and inhuman treatment.
Full text of: UN Human Rights Committee Decision, 6 November 2006
Statewatch coverage: Sweden: Expulsions carried out by US agents, men tortured in Egypt and Update
‘Seeking
asylum alone’ – Unaccompanied Children and Refugee
Protection in the UK (press release)
EU: Directive
on the prevention of the use of the financial system for the
purpose of money laundering and
terrorist financing (pdf) Press
release
(pdf). This measure is intended to combat money-laundering and
terrorist financing. It covers many forms of financial transactions
including those over 15,000 euros which raise suspicions of financial
institutions and for which there is no plausible explanation.
There are no data protection provisions but the Directive comes under the 1995 EC Directive on data protection. However, Article 28 which says: "The institutions and persons covered by this Directive and their directors and employees shall not disclose to the customer concerned or to other third persons the fact that information has been transmitted..." is contrary to the rights set out in Articles 10 and 11 of the 1995 Directive on the right of the individual to be informed. Article 27 allows data to be passed to: "a third country which imposes requirements equivalent to those laid down in this Directive, and that they are from the same professional category and are subject to equivalent obligations as regards professional secrecy and personal data protection." - which, theoretically, would prohibit data being passed to the USA.
EU: Data
protection proposal in a muddle - member states divided
Handicap International: Fatal:
Footprint: The Global Human Impact of Cluster Munitions and Mortality
after the 2003 invasion of Iraq: a cross-sectional cluster sample
survey
(Lancet)
Waking up in the surveillance society: Richard Thomas,
the UK Information Commissioner, speaking today (2.11.06) at
the 28th International Data Protection and Privacy Commissioners'
Conference in London said:
“Two years ago I warned that we were in danger of sleepwalking into a surveillance society. Today I fear that we are in fact waking up to a surveillance society that is already all around us."
Press release (pdf)
A
Report on the Surveillance Society: For the Information Commissioner
by the Surveillance Studies Network, 2006 (pdf, 102 pages)
see also: While
Europe sleeps... by Tony Bunyan
Speech
by Lord Chief Justice Phillips on terrorism and human rights (link)
EU-G6 Conclusions
of Interior Ministers meeting 25-26 October 2006. G6 is comprised of
France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain and the UK. For background
see: G6-G8-Prum:
Behind closed doors - policy-making in secret intergovernmental
and international fora and
"Behind
Closed Doors: the meeting of the G6 Interior Ministers at Heiligendamm":
House of Lords EU Committee report
UK: National Health Database: National
Health Warning over privacy of 50m patient files - Call for boycott
of medical database accessible by up to 250,000 NHS staff (Guardian, link) From
cradle to grave, your files available to a cast of thousands (link) 'A
national database is not essential' What health professionals
say about the new NHS database (link) What
can patients do? (link)
UK: DNA database: The Independent reports: Growing DNA database 'turning Britain into a nation of suspects' and DNA pioneer's civil rights fears (BBC, link): DNA fingerprinting inventor Prof Jeffreys told BBC Radio Four's Today programme:
"The real concern I have in the UK is what I see as a sort of 'mission creep'. "When the DNA database was initially established, it was to database DNA from criminals so if they re-offended, they could be picked up.
"Now hundreds of thousands of entirely innocent people are now populating that database, people who have come to the police's attention, for example by being charged with a crime and subsequently released."
He went to say that the samples were "skewed socio-economically and ethnically", adding: "My view is that that is discriminatory."
EU: Council of the European Union to back down - for now - on
its demand extending agencies to have access to the SIS II (Schengen
Information System)? A Presidency Note to the Mixed Committee
of Senior Officials (mixed, includes Norway, Iceland and Switzerland):
EU
doc no: 14490/06, 30 October 2006 says the package of three measures
is agreed with the European Parliament except for giving access
to internal security agencies.
The Note says that the "important issue" of which agencies
have access to VIS "will require further examination, including
the possibility to submit.new legislative proposals on this subject".
October 2006
EU: The age at which childrens' fingerprints will be compulsorily
taken for visas has been lowered from 12 year olds - as proposed
by the Council Presidency in June - to 6 year olds and above
under the latest draft of the EU Regulation on Common Consular
Instructions (CCI) - this sets the standards for issuing visas
to visit the EU under the proposed Regulation on the Visa Information
System (VIS) database.
Source: Draft Regulation amending the Common Consular Instructions (CCI) on visas for diplomatic and consular posts in relation to the introduction of biometrics including provisions on the organisation of the reception and processing of visa applications (EU doc no: 13610/06, dated 23 October 2006).
Statewatch coverage: EU:Fingerprinting of children - the debate goes on: Spain taking fingerprints and facial images from children at birth; Czech Republic taking fingerprints from 5 and facial images from birth; Latvia and France in favour of fingerprints from 6 and facial images from birth. EU states will be free to fingerprint children from day one of their life as soon as it is technologically possible: Council Presidency proposed in June 2006 that there should be the compulsory fingerprinting of children from the age of 12 year old.
Tony Bunyan, Statewatch editor, comments:
"All the discussions by EU governments in the Council about the age at which children should be subject to compulsory fingerprinting to get a visa are based on the technological possibilities - not on the moral and political questions of whether it is right or desirable.
In special cases the taking of fingerprints where a child is "at risk" in order to ensure their safety is necessary. But this does not in any way justify submitting all young children to this intrusive process.
There was a big, and public, debate over the age for taking the fingerprints of children for EURODAC of asylum-seekers and 14 years olds and above was agreed. If it becomes technologically possible to take the fingerprints of children at birth will this become the norm for EU visas, passports and identity cards?"
Visa Information
System (VIS): Latest draft of the Regulation showing the original
Commission proposal and the current draft Council positions:
EU
doc no 14359/06, dated 25 October 2006. VIS will become one of
the world's biggest fingerprint database growing to an estimated
70 million people in the first ten years. The Commission
has adopted an implementing decision which sets out Strasbourg and an Austrian
town as sites for the VIS. This follows a decision to place the
VIS in the same location as the SIS, and to provide also for
the creation of an agency to manage the VIS in future (just like
the SIS).
Standing committee of experts on international immigration, refugee and criminal law (Meijers Committee): Note on the recent proposal by the Commission to amend the EC Visa Regulation (pdf) Opinion of the European Data Protection Supervisor, January 2006 and EU Data protection working party criticise proposals on VIS
G6
meeting in Stratford upon Avon, UK - all spin no Conclusions - The UK Home Office has put out a press
release on the G6 meeting in the UK last week - Meeting of the
interior ministers of France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain and
the United Kingdom
War on Want report: Corporate
Mercenaries: The threat of private military and security companies (link) "Private
Military and Security Companies (PMSCs) sell security and military
services at home and overseas. Over the last 10 years these companies
have moved from the periphery of international politics into
the corporate boardroom, becoming a ‘normal’ part of
the military sector."
EU: Statewatch analysis: “The
Future of Europol” - more powers, less regulation, precious
little debate
by Ben Hayes. The EU is currently discussing the future of Europol
but is ignoring critical issues in favour of giving the agency
more powers and a more “flexible” legal framework
See background: Draft Council Conclusions on the future of Europol JHA Council December 2006 and "Friends of the Presidency" report on the future of Europol
EU: Standing committee of experts on international immigration,
refugee and criminal law (Meijers Committee): Proposal
for a Regulation establishing a mechanism for the creation of
Rapid Border Intervention Teams and amending Council Regulation
(EC) No 2007/2004 as regards that mechanism (COM (2006) 401 final) See background: Council
discussions on Articles 1-4 First Council discussion: EU
doc no 13137/06 and Commission proposal
EU: Draft Council proposal on a Framework Decision on data protection
on police and judicial cooperation - New draft and new questions:
13246/2/06,
dated 25 October 2006: Contains revisions by the Presidency and puts
substantial issues to the Articles 36 Committee meeting on 10
November.
See Statewatch Analysis by Tony Bunyan: EU data protection in police and judicial cooperation matters: Rights of suspects and defendants under attack by law enforcement demands (pdf) and Full-text documentation is available on Statewatch's Observatory on data protection in the EU
It is interesting to note that the conclusion of these agreements requires all EU member states to effectively replace the many bilateral agreements they have with the USA - but when it comes to data protection (see story above) all bilateral agreements with member states and the EU with the USA on passing over data and intelligence on individuals are to remain untouched as to do so would: "jeopardise the informal excellent contacts developed over time by the US law enforcement agencies with their opposite numbers in the Member States" (EU-US JHA High level meeting in Helsinki on 18 July 2006).
EU: Draft
Council Conclusions on the future of Europol JHA Council December
2006
This would give the go-ahead for the replacement of the Europol
Convention by a Council Decision on Europol. The Europol Convention
was ratified through a process requiring the agreement of national
parliaments who will now have no effective say in the re-drawing
of Europol's remit, powers and data protection provisions. To
understand the implications of this proposed decision see the
"Friends
of the Presidency" report on the future of Europol
EU-USA: Today, 26 October 2006, the USA requirement that EU passports
- to qualify for the Visa Waiver Scheme - have to have "biometrics"
came into force. In fact, the "requirement" means that
all new passports issued from today have to have the normal
passport photo "digitised", that is copied onto an
RFID chip (radio frequency identity) - so-called "face-maping
technology". This is not a biometric. Digitised photos
are only useful for "one-to-one" checks, not "one-to-many"
(ie: against a large database).
The taking of a biometric requires the individual to be present in person at an enrolment centre where biometrics are taken from them - fingerprints, iris scan or facial scan (1,840 unique points on their face). The taking of real biometrics will start next year in some member states (for new applicants, then renewals) and will be in force throughout the EU from 2008. With this in mind it is interesting that in the UK in the last year the number of new passports issued has risen from the norm of 5 million per annum to 6.5 million for 10-year passports.
In order to confirm the EU's compliance with US demands the General Secretariat of the Council of the European Union put out a document on 24 October listing the EU states who have introduced these so-called "biometric passports": EU doc no: 14356/06 (pdf) See also: BBC News (link)
Tony Bunyan, Statewatch editor, comments:
"The notion that "biometric" passports are being introduced is plain "spin". All that is happening is the digitisation of the normal passport photo which meets the standards agreed by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) - these standards do not require the taking of finger-prints which are optional.
It is ironic is that the EU will introduce the taking of fingerprints across Europe for all new passports - but the USA has no plans to asks its citizens to do the same"
Still unresolved is the USA's acceptance of 10 EU member states citizens into the Waiver Scheme: Report from the European Commission damning on US intransigence on visa reciprocity.(full-text: COM 568, 3.10.06) It shows that progress has been made with nine countries but none at all with the USA - the USA refuses to include Greece and nine new member states: Czech Republic, Estonia, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Malta, Poland and Slovakia in the "Visa Waiver Scheme". The report says there are "no signs of tangible progress" and it questions the data used by the US side to support its position: no information is supplied on the reasons for refusing visa from the 10 EU states and no accurate figures on overstaying are available. It concludes that the Commission believes that steps should now be taken to restore visa requirements on US "nationals holding diplomatic and duty/official passports".
Amnesty International: Report
on Ceuta and Melilla: Spain and Morocco: Failure to protect the
rights of migrants - one year on (report, pdf) Letter (pdf)
EU: CIA
tried to silence EU on torture flights - Germany offered access
to prisoner in Morocco if it quelled opposition (Guardian, link)
EU: Standing committee of experts on international immigration,
refugee and criminal law (Meijers Committee): Note
on the recent proposal by the Commission to amend the EC Visa
Regulation
(pdf)
EU: Update: Draft Framework Decision on data protection on police
and judicial matters (DPFD) : 13918/06, dated
13 October 2006: Question on scope: Note to Article 36 Committee
on the draft Framework Decision should cover only exchanges between
member states (international) or domestic (national) processing
as well. Six member states "have expressed doubts"
as the measure covering domestic processing - Switzerland, Czech
Republic, Denmark, Ireland, Sweden and UK. And:
- 13958/06, dated 16 October 2006: List provided by the General Secretariat of the Council on data protection provisions in other third pillar instruments. It does not cover the Schengen agreement whose provisions are stricter than the draft proposal. Most importantly, provisions in all other measures and proposals which refer to the Council of Europe Convention 1981 and Recommendation (87) 15 on the use of personal data in the police sector would automatically be replaced by the new DPFD (see Recital 25) - which, on the evidence of the current Council draft, will set far lower standards for those member states who sought to implement CoE standards.
See Statewatch Analysis by Tony Bunyan: EU data protection in police and judicial cooperation matters: Rights of suspects and defendants under attack by law enforcement demands (pdf)
Full-text documentation is available on Statewatch's Observatory on data protection in the EU
France:
Sarkozy
jumps into row over Muslim airport staff (link, Expatica)
EU: High Level Meeting on Prum Treaty: "a high
level conference will be organized on 16 November 2006 in Vienna
by Austrian and German authorities on the possible relevance
and integration of the provisions of the Prum Treaty in the European
Union framework" (from minutes of the Police Chiefs
Task Force). For background see: G6-G8-Prum: Behind
closed doors - policy-making in secret intergovernmental and
international fora and
"Behind
Closed Doors: the meeting of the G6 Interior Ministers at Heiligendamm":
House of Lords EU Committee report. Informal
Meeting of European Data Protection Authorities, Bonn, 27 July
2006: Opinion on the data protection aspects of the Prum Convention and Opinion
of CNIL (Commission Nationale de l'Informatique et des Libertes The Prum Treaty was
signed on 27 May 2005 by Belgium, Germany, Spain, France, Luxembourg,
Netherlands and Austria - Italy has since indicated it wants
to join: Prum
Treaty - full-text (pdf)
Northern Ireland: DNA data held on 1,119
innocent children
EU: Police
Football Handbook (pdf) Defines: "A person, known or not,
who can be regarded as posing a possible risk to public order
or anti social
behaviour, whether planned or spontaneous, at or in connection
with a football event" Point 4.7 ask for information
on fans' "Reactions to decisions of the referee" and
6.8 asks for information on fans: "Political way of thinking"
EU: Visa Information System
(VIS) - "EU VISIT system" takes shape
UPDATED: Draft Regulation on VIS and the exchange of data between Member States on short-stay visas (doc no 13861/06, dated 12 October 2006) This document compares the Commission proposal to the current "compromise" draft and sets out outstanding questions.
The EU is currently deciding
on the purpose, function and scope of the VIS and law enforcement
access to it. The personal data of everyone who applies for an
EU short-stay visa, including their photograph and fingerprints,
will be recorded in the VIS (this includes persons whose applications
for a visa are rejected). As with the "US VISIT system",
this data will ultimately be used to facilitate identity checks
and verify entry to and exit from the EU. In addition, the "internal
security" agencies of the member states and Europol will
have access to the data. See:
- Previous: Draft
Regulation on VIS and the exchange of data between Member States
on short-stay visas (12190/06, 7 September 2006 - shows
original proposal, proposed European Parliament amendments and
suggested "presidency compromise")
- Council Decision
establishing the Visa Information System (June 2004)
Draft Decision on access to VIS
by internal security agencies and Europol:
- Commission
proposal (COM (2005) 600, 24 November 2005)
- Police cooperation
working party (9641/06, 7 June 2006)
- Proposals
for redrafting and outstanding questions (10627/06, 27
June 2006)
- Proposals for redrafting
(11405/06, 3 August 2006)
- Proposals
as at 16 October 2005 (EU doc no: 11405/1/06)
- UPDATED: Proposal
as at 19 October 2006 (EU doc no: 14196/06)
- Opinion
of the European Data Protection Supervisor (20 January
2006), including the following remarks:
"One must bear in mind that the VIS is an information system developed in view of the application of the European visa policy and not as a law enforcement tool. Routine access would indeed represent a serious violation of the principle of purpose limitation. It would entail a disproportionate intrusion in the privacy of travellers who agreed to their data being processed in order to obtain a visa, and expect their data to be collected, consulted and transmitted, only for that purpose."
EU-USA PNR formal adoption of agreement: Press
release
and Report
on debate in the European Parliament For full background documentation and
history, see Statewatch's Observatory on the exchange of data
on passengers (PNR) with the USA
EU: Council of the European Union (25 governments) adopts new:
Rules
of Procedure
and Council
Decision amending comitology" procedures: implementing powers
conferred on the Commission
EU-Norway and Iceland now covered by European Arrest Warrant
(EAW): Council
Decision
and Agreement
UK: Conference: "Reclaiming
our rights", Saturday 2nd December 2006, 10:00 - 17:00.
The Graduate Centre (Libeskind Building), London Metropolitan
University
UK: The
Case Against Vetting: How the child protection industry is poisoning
adult-child relations
(Manifesto Club report, pdf). The Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups
Bill will mean that one third of the adult working population
will be subject to ongoing criminal checks. Those now routinely
vetted include: 16-year-olds who teach younger kids to read;
hospital secretaries who rarely meet children; foster carers’
friends; school governors; parent volunteers in schools; cricket
umpires; private music tutors; university lecturers who teach
17-year-olds; students who help out on university open days;
plumbers who check the school radiators; grandmothers who volunteer
in schools; child psychologists who review adoption applications;
teenagers whose parents are childminding a younger child. Running
an after-school club is now subject to more stringent tests than
selling explosives, or practising law. See also: Manifesto Club:
Vetting Campaign
(link)
EU: Statewatch briefing papers: Schengen Information
System (SIS) II - legislation agreed
Immigration Regulation: The Commission's ambitions to amend the existing SIS rules in order to harmonize the grounds for listing, to remove expressly family members of EU citizens from the SIS blacklist, to alter the rules concerning access by authorities, to extend the management period for alerts and to take over management of the system have all been rebuffed by the Council. See: Statewatch briefing paper: SIS II Regulation
Policing and
Criminal Law Decision: The new Decision will differ from the
current Schengen rules as regards the inclusion of biometric
data. The rules on types of alerts will also be amended to include
copies of European Arrest Warrants and connected data, and a
lower threshold to issue alerts relating to surveillance. Access
to SIS data would also be widened for Eurojust and (if the Council's
text is accepted) security agencies. See: Statewatch
briefing paper: SIS II Decision
Adopted texts, European Parliament report and background documentation:
see SIS
II: key texts
UK: Joint Committee on human rights: Human
trafficking - report
EU: Schengen
Convention: Rules governing the Schengen Information System revised (pdf)
UK-Guantanamo: Court
judgment
goes against British people held in Guantanamo Bay. See Save
Omar
website
EU-USA PNR: the Council of the European Union has now produced
the separate texts on passenger name record (PNR) access by the
USA.
1. New
Council Decision on EU-USA PNR deal
This replaces the previous Decision which the EU court ruled
was on the wrong legal basis.
2. New
Council Agreement on EU-USA PNR deal
This replaces the previous Agreement which the EU court ruled
was on the wrong legal basis
3. Text
of letter from the US Department of Homeland Security on their
"interpretation" of "certain provisions"
of the "Undertakings" of 11 May 2004
This letter from the USA re-interprets parts of the "Undertakings"
agreed in 2004 and which still form part of the Agreement.
See: Statewatch critique: EU-USA PNR agreement
renegotiated to meet US demands - when the law changes in the USA so too does access
to data and how it is processed
4. Council
reply to the US letter
The Council's reply to the US Department of Homeland Security
says that the USA's "commitments" to implement the
"Undertakings" allows the EU to declare there is an
"adequate level of data protection" - but is this statement
based on the 2004 "Undertakings" or their new "interpretation"
by the USA?
5. US Undertakings attached to agreement, 2004
6. On 11 October the European Parliament plenary session debated the new Decision and Agreement: Abstracts from speakers who intervened on behalf of their groups
For full background documentation and history, see Statewatch's Observatory on the exchange of data on passengers (PNR) with the USA
Denmark: Terror
case against the association "Oproer" (Rebellion)
UK-ALGERIA agreements signed in July now published, including
the one on extradition of people who are in danger of facing
torture and ill-treatment:
2. The
Convention between the Government of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Northern Ireland and the Government of the People’s
Democratic Republic of Algeria on Mutual Legal Assistance in
Criminal Matters London, 11 July 2006
3. Convention
between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
and the People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria on Judicial
Co-operation in Civil and Commercial Matters
4. Agreement
on the Circulation of Persons and Readmission between the Government
of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and
the Government of the People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria
See: Amnesty
International - Algeria (link)
and Statewatch's Observatory
on "Terrorists" lists
EU: ECRE (European Council on Refugees and Exiles) on the asylum
procedures directive: ECRE
Information Note on the Council Directive 2005/85/EC of 1 December
2005 on minimum standards on procedures in Member States for
granting and withdrawing refugee status
Full-text of the Directive (pdf) Statewatch analysis: EU law on asylum procedures: An assault on human rights? (November 2003)
EU-US PNR deal: Sophie In't Veld (D66, Netherlands, ALDE group),
the EP rapporteur, has got the parliament to agree to hold a
public debate on the matter tomorrow afternoon during the Brussels
plenary session (11 October). Letter
from Sophie In't Veld to Commissioner Frattini asking a series
of questions on the agreement (pdf).
For full background documentation and history, see Statewatch's Observatory on the exchange of data on passengers (PNR) with the USA
EU: Latest Council draft of the Framework Decision on data protection
in police and judicial matters: Full-text:
EU doc no: 13246/1/06 REV1, 9 October 2006. It will be seen in
the introduction (p2, pt 4) that the draft "departs from
the point of view that the FD will also be applicable to domestic
data processing"
See Statewatch 18-page analysis: EU data protection in police and
judicial cooperation matters: Rights of suspects and defendants
under attack by law enforcement demands (pdf) and full-text documentation on
Statewatch's
Observatory on data protection in the EU
EU:
Evidence
submitted by Masaad Omer Behari (German., pdf) alleged victim of extraordinary
rendition (Sudanese, residing in Vienna) to the European Parliament's
Temporary Committee on the alleged use of European countries
by the CIA for the transport and illegal detention of prisoners
on 10 October 2006. See also: Statewatch's
Observatory on CIA rendition
EU-USA
PNR agreement renegotiated to meet US demands - when the law changes in the USA so too
does access to data and how it is processed
EU-USA PNR (passenger name record) agreement
of 6 October 2006: Full-text
Original
agreement of 17 May 2004 (pdf)
US
Undertakings attached to agreement, 2004 (pdf)
Spain/Morocco: Another
migrant shot dead in Melilla in July
Portugal: Renditions
continue: Algerian prisoner abducted and deported
Portugal: Evidence
of illegal CIA rendition flights surfacing
EU/Africa:
1st
anniversary of the shooting of migrants in Ceuta and Melilla : Events, account and an excellent publication
"The Black Book of Ceuta and Melilla", by Migreurop
(108 pages, French, pdf). A
number of initiatives have been organised throughout Europe and
in several African countries (Benin, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco,
Tunisia) as part of the transnational day of action against migration
controls on 7 October, which also marks the first anniversary
of the shooting of migrants at the Spanish-Moroccan border fences
of the enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla in late September and early
October 2005.
Updated: EU: Council
list of international fora "dealing with illegal immigration" (pdf)
EU-USA PNR (passenger name record) agreement reached: Joint
press release
(dated 6 October 2006, pdf) The press release tells us nothing
of its actual content nor of any changes to the agreement.
Council of Europe: Report: European
Judicial Systems (2006 edition, 2004 data) (link to full report)
Summary (link) Country
replies
(link)
EU: Justice and Home Affairs Council, 5-6 October 2006 in Luxembourg:
Updated: Press
release for 5-6 October (pdf) JHA Council adopts Conclusions
on SIS II and SIS These confirm the long delay in implementing the
Schengen Information System (SIS II) with the new date being
June 2008 - such is the delay that the Commission's mandate has
had to be extended "beyond 31 December 2006". The "re-scheduling"
is set out in EU
doc no 12379/06 (pdf). The Conclusions gloss over what has been
months of very heated comment directed at the Commission - this
is reflected in EU
do no 12835/06 (18 September 2006). The delay most affects the
ten new member states as "the lifting of controls at the
internal land, sea and air borders" for the Schengen area
cannot happen until they are taking part in the SIS.
B-points
agenda
A-points
agenda
Background
paper
Draft
Council Conclusions on reinforcing the southern external maritime
border
(pdf)
Statewatch publishes an 18-page analysis:
EU
data protection in police and judicial cooperation matters: Rights
of suspects and defendants under attack by law enforcement demands (pdf)
backed by full-text documentation on Statewatch's Observatory on data protection in the EU
Tony Bunyan, Statewatch editor who prepared this analysis, comments:
"This
is going to be a momentous decision affecting existing national
laws on data protection, and the exchange of data within the
EU and around the globe. It is also going to the the foundation
of the right of data protection in a host of planned and future
EU measures, including the new Schengen Information System (SIS
II).
The Commission draft proposal is being substantially re-written
by the Council's Multidisciplinary Group on Organised Crime including
removing the rights of data subjects and obstacles to the passing
of data to third countries outside the EU.
Until the Council finishes its so-called "second reading"
the final text will not been known - when they are intending
to simply "nod" it through. If it does so without the
opportunity for national and European parliaments and civil society
to express their views it will utterly lack legitimacy”
Updated: 5 October 2006: EU-NATO: Classified information: NATO
2005 added:
a) Exchange
of EU classified information (EUCI) with third countries and
organisations
(8 September 2006)
b) EU: Council
Decision adopting the Council's security regulations (28 February 2001)
c) NATO: Security
within NATO
(17 June 2002) Thanks to Hungarian Civil Liberties Union
d) NATO:
NATO Security Committee: Directive on the Security of Information Second revision of 2002
version (4 February 2005) Thanks to Hungarian Civil Liberties
Union
EU-USA: Report
from the European Commission damning on US intransigence on visa
reciprocity.(full-text:
COM 568, 3.10.06) It shows that progress has been made with nine
countries but none