The European Organisation for Security (EOS), the chief lobby group for Europe’s “security industry” in 2011. Flickr/Security Defence Agenda. Some rights reserved. The EU has hit troubled waters in recent years, but divisions and tensions within the bloc have not halted significant advances in the development and implementation of new security measures aiming to counter terrorism, fight crime, ensure “border management” and protect critical infrastructure at the same time as constructing a European “homeland security” economy able to compete with states such as the USA, Israel and China.
Propelled by a healthy dose of corporate influence and assistance, measures already in place or on the way include the EU-wide border surveillance system Eurosur; a new network of ‘Passenger Information Units’ for police profiling of air and, in the future, rail and ferry passengers; biometric databases and recognition and identification systems for public and private use alike; and new data-mining and predictive analysis tools that foresee police forces wielding powers akin to those traditionally reserved for intelligence agencies.
Such proposals would be unsavoury at any time – but in the context of governments of all stripes normalising emergency powers, extending the scale and scope of state surveillance, introducing restrictions on freedom of speech and assembly, and cutting back on procedural rights in the criminal justice system – these give particular cause for concern. Such proposals would be unsavoury at any time – but in the context of governments of all stripes normalising emergency powers… these give particular cause for concern.
