EU-US: Creation of a Northern "axis"?
01 January 2002
- EU-US to establish common area on asylum and exclusion of "inadmissibles"
- EU-US to exchange Europol strategic analysis and personal data
- EU-US to have mutual assistance agreement covering criminal and judicial matters
Underneath the well-reported apparent disagreements between the United States and the EU (and a number of its governments) over tactics in the "war against terrorism" (for example, extending the "war" to Iraq) a much deeper change is taking shape.
The EU and the US have always cooperated, usually through ad hoc meetings, on specific issues concerning policing and migration. But now, beneath the to-ing and fro-ing, we are seeing the creation of a new permanent EU-US area of cooperation on migration, expulsion and exclusion and police and judicial cooperation - the "EU-US Northern axis". This "axis" born out of the "fight against terrorism" is creating a common area of cooperation which will cover in its first stage:
i) border control management which presumes the EU and the USA are a single, common, area;
ii) the systematic exchange of data on false documents and visas (issued and refused) and maybe passenger lists to control movement and exclusion "inadmissibles" from the common area;
iii) the exchange of police and intelligence data and information on terrorism and crime in general - including personal information - even though the US has no federal data protection system;
iv) agreement(s) covering judicial cooperation, including fast-track extradition for trial;
v) a series of "mutual assistance agreements" on justice and home affairs issues, under Article 38 of the Treaty on the European Union (which requires no formal parliamentary scrutiny or consultation);
In addition there is to be the more systematic coordination of foreign policies, aid and trade to combat "terrorism" (see feature page: 17) through the G7/8 meetings and the Transatlantic Agenda (EU-US Senior Officials Group).
The common EU-US axis is likely to be developed in much the same way as the EU: piecemeal harmonisation, cooperation mechanisms, information exchanges and common databases.
Taken together these measures alone (and there may be more in the pipeline) constitute the creation of a common internal security policy covering the European Union and the United States.
EU post 11 September developments
This does not mean that all post 11 September measures in the EU are being determined by the "axis", it is rather that the "axis" covers areas of "common interest" at the level of international cooperation. But like the US, with its PATRIOT Act, Homeland Security Act and revision of immigration rules, the EU has it own programme of measures.
In this issue there are reports on the the ever widening EU concept of terrorism (page 16) and on measures being taken at national level in Denmark (page 2), Germany (page 6) and the Netherlands (page 19).
Already a number of broad conclusions can be drawn on the effects of 11 September: 1) under the excuse of combating “terrorism" new powers and agencies are being put in place on crime in general and on asylum in particular; 2) A number of measures are not targeted but will place the "whole population" under surveillance(see UK Home Office comment, page 18) which will lead to an enormous growth in the amount of "intelligence" held on people's quite normal, lawful and democratic activities; 3) special measures are being directed at refugees and asylum-seekers and protests and protestors and 4) the concept of "free movement" within the EU has been suspended for the foreseeable future, "free movement" requires not just the ability to move between EU countries without being checked, but to do so in a way that is not being recorded and stored.