Statewatch: Proposal to create EU-wide "troublemakers" database

from imc-uk, 24 April 2008:

See http://www.statewatch.org/news/2008/apr/04eu-troublemakers.htm

- to "prevent individuals or groups who are considered to pose a potential threat to the maintenance of public law and order and/or security from travelling to the location of the event"

- and to put in place:

"The necessary arrangements for a quick and efficient implementation of the potential expulsion measures"

- EU Security Handbook: "The scope of the manual is now such that it applies to the security (both from a public order point of view as well as counter-terrorism) of all major international events, be it political, sporting, social, cultural or other."

Tony Bunyan, Statewatch editor, comments:

"We can now see a pattern emerging across the EU where people who exercise their democratic right to attend cross border protests are confronted by aggressive para-military policing, surveillance, preventive detention and expulsion.

This is a reflection of the EU's definition of "security" at international events which is now defined as covering both "counter-terrorism" and "public order".

Back in 2003 the bilateral exchange of information on "suspected troublemakers" between EU states for international events was agreed. What is proposed now is not the one-off exchange of information related to a specific event but a permanent EU-wide database of suspected "troublemakers", this is utterly unacceptable in a democratic Europe."

See also: Policing protests in Switzerland, Italy and Germany:
http://www.statewatch.org/news/2008/apr/02policing-protests.htm

[original article]

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