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Observatory on the European security-industrial complex
What is the European security-industrial complex?
The European security-industrial complex is a term used to describe the confluence of interests within the European Union between the 'homeland security' industry and politicians and state officials dealing with security policies.
At EU level, this complex is most apparent in the European Security Research Programme (ESRP), currently a €1.7 billion component of the seven-year EU Framework Research Programme (Horizon 2020, 2014-20). The research programme's official name is 'Secure societies - Protecting freedom and security of Europe and its citizens'. The ESRP has the twin objectives of enhancing public safety through the development of security technologies and fostering the growth of a globally competitive European 'homeland security' market. Security-related research also takes place in other themes of the €77 billion Horizon 2020 programme (e.g. space, transport, energy, etc.). The current incarnation of the ESRP follows on from the €1.4 billion security component of the Seventh Framework Programme for Research and Development (FP7, 2007-13).
The security research budgets are intended to provide tools and technologies that will complement EU and national internal security policies, which have their own EU budgets. For the 2014-20 period, the most relevant funding programmes are the Internal Security Fund - Police (ISF-Police) and the Internal Security Fund - Borders & Visa (ISF-Borders), worth a total of some €3.8 billion. Relevant funding may also come from other sources, such as the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF) as well as the funds for EU agencies such as Europol and Frontex. In the 2007-13 period the equivalent funds - ISEC (law enforcement), CIPS (critical infrastructure) and the External Borders Fund (EBF) - were far smaller, coming to just over €2.5 billion. The majority (€1.8 billion) was dedicated to the External Borders Fund.
In 2012 the European Commission also initiated a 'Security Industrial Policy', launching a number of actions that were supposed to help develop a harmonised European market for security products and technologies.
Early research by Statewatch and the Transnational Institute (Arming Big Brother and NeoConOpticon) showed how the design of the ESRP was largely outsourced to the major players in the nascent European Homeland Security industry, instituting an apparent conflict of interests within which large multinationals and major research institutes have been able to shape the security research agenda, apply for the subsequent R&D funds on offer, and then attempt to sell the resulting technologies and systems back to the governments that funded their development. Subsequent research (Market Forces) has confirmed these findings. See: Market Forces (2017), NeoConOpticon (2009) and Arming Big Brother (2006).
According to a 2014 report commissioned by the European Parliament, the EU's dedication to supporting the security industry and developing technologies of surveillance “overrules all other societal considerations, which are relegated to preoccupations with societal acceptance of securitytechnologies.” A 2010 edition of the same report concluded that "it is mostly large defence companies, the very same who have participated in the definition of EU-sponsored security research which are the main beneficiaries of [ESRP] funds".
The EU has also recommended that Member States establish dedicated national security research programmes and at least seven have done so.
Latest updates
- 24 October 2018: Horizon Europe proposals added to the Observatory
- 24 October 2018: Security research: advisory group report on fundamental rights in a "digital intensive environment" added to the Observatory
Critical analysis - Statewatch/Transnational Institute
- A new player in security research: the European Network of Law Enforcement Technology Services (ENLETS) (2011)
- Homeland Security comes to Europe (2009)
- NeoConOpticon: The EU
Security-Industrial Complex (2009)
- The German Security Research Programme: Transferring military technology – securitising civil research by Eric Töpfer (2010)
Other critical research
- (2018) Expanding the fortress: The policies, the profiteers and the people shaped by EU's border externalisation programme (TNI)
- (2017) Arms industry lobbying and the militarisation of the EU (Corporate Europe Observatory, link): an overview of information from the report 'Securing Profits' (below) and elsewhere, including the Statewatch/TNI report 'Market Forces'.
- (2017) Securing Profits by Bram Vanken (Vredesactie): on the arms idustry's role in the developing EU military research and defence policy.
- (2017) Security for Sale: The price we pay to protect Europeans (de Correspondent)
- (2016) Border Wars and Border Wars II by Mark Akkerman (Transnational Institute, 2016)
- (2014 and 2010) Review of security measures in the Research Framework Programme published by the European Parliament Directorate General for internal Policies. Detailed report confirming many of the findings in Statewatch and TNI’s earlier NeoConOpticon report (above).
- (2013) A European Agenda for Security Technology: From Innovation Policy to Export Controls by Jocelyn Mawdsley
- (2011) Lobbying Warfare: The arms industry's role in building a militarised Europe (Corporate Europe Observatory): on arms industry lobby in the EU institutions.
- Security research: advisory group report on fundamental rights in a "digital intensive environment" (October 2018)
- Budget proposals foresee big boost for spending on security, migration and border control (May 2018)
- Rethinking security... or not (May 2016)
- Long-distance border controls to "check travellers data along his/her journey" and remotely detect "abnormal behaviour" (November 2015)
- EU seeks autonomous drones, "data fusion" and "enhanced command and control centres" for border control (November 2015)
- EU funding for network developing surveillance, intelligence-gathering and remote vehicle stopping tools (January 2015)
EU security policy framework
- (2015) European Agenda on Security
- (2015) European Agenda on Migration
High-level reports and policy papers
- (2018) Horizon 2020 Protection and Security Advisory Group (PASAG): Achieving synergies between security and information-related fundamental rights (IRFR) in a digital intensive environment (July 2018, pdf): In line with the cybersecurity theme of the Horizon 2020 security research programme, the PASAG (responsible for providing advice to the European Commission on the content of the security research work programmes) has produced a report on fundamental rights and the "digital-intensive" environment (e.g. concerning the Internet of Things, big data, surveillance, social media). The report argues that technologies to enforce fundamental rights are unlikely to be funded by industry and should be the focus of public funding; it makes a number of recommendations for the types of projects or topics that could be pursued. At the same time, this desire to ensure that fundamental rights are protected in a "digital intensive environment" is, at root, a means to ensure that the model of 'surveillance capitalism' that has arisen in recent years retains legitimacy in the eyes of the public.
- (2011) European Commission: Results of the Public Consultation on an Industrial Policy for the Security Industry (2011): "The objective of this consultation was to collect the stakeholders’ views on the envisaged policy measures aimed at an enhancing the security of the European citizens through a dedicated EU security industry policy."
- (14.3.2011) The European Commission has launched a public consultation entitled ‘Unleashing the potential of Europe’s security industry’. See also Commission Background paper and NeoConOpticon blog: 'Please help this beleaguered industry!
- (2011) The European Commission has published a Green Paper on a Common Strategic Framework for future EU Research and Innovation Funding (COM (2011) 48) and launched a public consultation. Responses are invited by 20 May 2011.