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SECILE Project: Taking stock of EU Counter-terrorism policy and review mechanisms: Summary of Statewatch’s findings for SECILE project

12 December 2013

See: Taking stock of EU Counter-terrorism policy and review mechanisms: Summary of Statewatch’s findings for SECILE project (pdf)

SECILE is an EU-funded research project examining the impact, legitimacy and effectiveness of European Union counter-terrorism measures. Statewatch’s role in the project is to conduct a ‘stocktake’ of EU counter-terrorism measures and to collect and analyse data about their implementation. This summary documents summarises three of Statewatch's four reports and contains:

An overview of Statewatch’s research findings

The EU appears far more concerned with assessing the exercise of its authority than with evaluating its effectiveness in the context of counter-terrorism. The legitimacy of EU counter-terrorism policy is simply taken for granted by legislators while challenges to the EU’s legitimacy have consistently been met with the conviction that “more Europe” is the only solution.

A commentary on the evolution of the EU counter-terrorism agenda

The extensive catalogue of EU counter-terrorism measures identified in this report gives rise to five substantive concerns:

- the sheer scope of the programme;
- the breadth of the EU’s counter-terrorism agenda;
- the EU’s counter-terrorism agenda has become so bloated as to make it extremely difficult for citizens and even specialist researchers to understand which specific policies fit in where and why, never mind what those policies do; where they came from; whether they have been properly implemented or whether they are effective;
- the "democratic deficit" that has long been synonymous with EU decision-making has been particularly pronounced in the area of justice and home affairs and security policy;
- the increasing involvement of the security and defence industry in many of the security and counter-terrorism policies overseen by the European Commission26 gives rise to concerns about democracy, accountability and undue corporate influence.

An explanation of the different types of EU legal measures and their effect

Provides detailed information on Regulations, Directives, Framework Decisions, Decisions, Common Positions, International agreements, and Other measures.