In cold war times, the ‘West espoused liberal democracy and freedom from surveillance and control. It is thus ironic that with the cold war a distant memory — though it only ended less than twenty years ago — the EU and its member states are set on a path which will, in just a few years time, turn it into the most surveilled, monitored region in the world. The wider context for all this is increased state racism (both at the national and EU levels), combined with the emergence of the ‘policing state , engendered by a political and governmental authoritarianism that legitimises itself through the trappings of representative democracy.
Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and the Council, amending Council Regulation (EC) No 2252/2004 on standards for security features and biometrics in passports and travel documents issued by Member States (presented by the Commission).
2.
Everyone visiting the EU on a visa is being fingerprinted as of 2007-8. This together with personal data is to be stored on the EU-wide VIS database (Visa Information System) which will hold over 70 million records within ten years.
3.
Council of the European Union, Council approves draft directive on driving licences. Press release, Brussels, 27 March 2006 7794/06 (Presse 90).
4.
At the moment people are being asked to agree and a small number are saying no. The NHS database will be accessible by over 350,000 ‘clinicians in the UK.
5.
It is clear from the Council internal discussions that while the present proposal is limited to air travel in and out of the EU it will not be long before the plan will cover flights between EU states and within EU states (as the UK is already planning) and to sea and land travel too (as the UK is already planning).
6.
A. Sivanandan , ‘New circuits of imperialism , Race & Class (Vol 30, no. 4, 1989).
7.
A. Sivanandan, ‘Racism in the age of globalisation , speech to the third annual Claudia Jones Memorial Lecture, October 2004, < http://www.irr.org.uk/2004/october/ha000024.html>.
8.
EU governments to give law enforcement agencies access to all communications data, <http:// www.statewatch.org/news/2001/may/03Aenfopol.htm>, and see Statewatch s Observatory on The EU-FBI telecommunications surveillance system, <http://www.statewatch.org/ eufbi/index.html>.
9.
Note from the European Commission s Directorate B, UnitB/1 Police and Customs Cooperation Working Party, held 13-14 October 1999.
10.
The ‘war on freedom and democracy , an analysis of the effects on civil liberties and democratic culture in the EU by Tony Bunyan (September 2002), <http://www.statewatch.org/ analyses/no-56-democracy-and-technology.pdf>.
11.
See: Action on Rights for Children, <http://www.arch-ed.org/>.
12.
Commission Green Paper on detection technologies in the work of law enforcement, customs and other security authorities COM(2006) 474 final; Statewatch Analysis: Detection technologies and democracy, September 2006, Tony Bunyan.
13.
The ‘principle of availability by Tony Bunyan (December 2006), <http://www.statewatch .org/analyses/no-59-p-of-a-art.pdf>.
14.
‘Scoreboard on post-Madrid counter-terrorism plans (March 2004), <http://www.statewatch .org/analyses/no-37-scoreboard-eu-plan.pdf>.
15.
On two major issues - mandatory data retention and the fingerprinting of everyone for passports and ID cards - the EU is ahead of the US.
This usually leads to mountains of unrequested letters, flyers, emails and phone calls to get us to buy more of their goods.
18.
See SWIFT documentation: <http://www.statewatch.org/news/2008/jun/06eu-usa-swift-agreement.htm>.
19.
In 2008, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that this practice was unlawful. However, the UK government is proposing to still keep people s DNA for up to twelve years.
20.
‘Cultural cleansing , European Race Bulletin (No. 62, Winter 2008).
21.
Greece: 5,432 immigrants questioned in massive security sweep in July-August 2005 at request of MI6, <http://www.statewatch.org/news/2006/jan/08greece-security-sweep.htm>.
22.
See Liz Fekete, Integration, Islamophobia and civil rights in Europe (London, Institute of Race Relations, 2008), in particular A. Sivanandan s preface.
Wilton Park is a government sponsored thinktank. Wilton Park paper 120, HMSO, 1996.
25.
Tony Bunyan, ‘While Europe sleeps , <http://www.ecln.org/essays/essay-11.pdf> ;.
26.
‘Democracy in the EU (and often nationally too) is defined as ‘representative democracy which, in my view, is not a political theory but a description of reality.
27.
Letter to the Guardian, Dr Richard Horton, editor of the Lancet (14 December 2008).
