<incom> Statewatch, Arming Big Brother - the EU Security Research Programme

[Soenke Zehle]

Update on EU security research, transfer of border control/surveillance 
equipment is an important area of 'info-developmental' cooperation, one 
of the ways in which 'ICT4D' intersects with migration, esp. in terms of 
the ongoing securitization of development (as was noted in USAID report, 
for instance), Soenke

<http://www.statewatch.org/>

New Statewatch Report:

/Arming Big Brother/: new research reveals the true costs of Europe's 
security-industrial complex

The European Union is preparing to spend up to €1 billion per year on 
new ‘research’ into surveillance and control technologies, according to 
/Arming Big Brother, /a new report by the Transnational Institute (TNI) 
and Statewatch.

"Arms industry lobbying is leading to the creation of a powerful new 
internal security-industrial complex," says Ben Hayes, author of the report.

/Arming Big Brother /lifts the lid on the secretive committees and arms 
industry lobbying that led to the creation of the European Security 
Research Programme (ESRP).

"The EU is basically funding the diversification of the 
‘military-industrial complex’ into the highly profitable internal 
security field", said Hayes.

"The militarisation of policing and border controls will not prevent 
crime or terrorism", said Hayes, "it does nothing to address ‘root 
causes’ while posing a massive threat to civil liberties".

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ben Hayes has been a researcher with the civil liberties group 
Statewatch since 1996, specialising in the development and 
implementation of EU Justice and Home Affairs policy. He is widely 
published on civil liberties issues in Europe and has written about 
policing, surveillance, criminal law, immigration controls, asylum 
policy, human rights, privacy and data protection, freedom of 
information and democratic standards. He works with of range of NGOs and 
community groups including the American Civil Liberties Union, the 
International Campaign Against Mass Surveillance, the Campaign Against 
Criminalising Communities (UK) and the Global Freedom of Information
Advocates Network. He is joint co-ordinator of the European Civil 
Liberties Network, launched in October 2005, see http://www.ecln.org/

This Statewatch-TNI report examines the development of the 
security-industrial complex in Europe and in particular the development 
of the EU Security Research Programme (ESRP). Spawned by the 
military-industrial complex, the security-industrial complex has 
developed as the traditional boundaries between external security 
(military) and internal security (security services) and law enforcement 
(policing) have eroded. With the global market for technologies of 
repression more lucrative than ever in the wake of 11 September 2001, it 
is on a healthy expansion course.

The story of the EU Security Research Programme is one of “Big Brother” 
meets market fundamentalism. It was personified by the establishment in 
2003 of a “Group of Personalities” (GoP)comprised of EU officials and 
Europe’s biggest arms and IT companies. The GoP’s concern was a simple 
one: European multinationals are losing out to their US competitors 
because the US government is providing them with a billion dollars a 
year for security research – it recommended the EU match this level of 
funding to ensure a “level playing field”. The European Commission has 
obliged with a “preparatory” budget for security research 2004-6, with 
the full ESRP to begin in 2007, and appointed an EU Security Research 
Advisory Board to oversee the programme. This makes permanent the GoP 
and gives profit-making corporations an official status in the EU 
shaping not just security research but security policy.

Myriad local and global surveillance systems; the introduction of 
biometric identifiers; RFID, electronic tagging and satellite 
monitoring; “less-lethal weapons”; paramilitary equipment for public 
order and crisis management; and the militarization of border controls – 
technological advances in law enforcement are often welcomed 
uncritically but rarely are these technologies neutral, in either 
application or effect. Military organisations dominate research and 
development in these areas under the banner of “dual-use” technology, 
avoiding both the constraints and controversies of the arms trade. 
Tomorrow’s technologies of control quickly become today’s political 
imperative; contentious policies appear increasingly irresistible. There 
are strong arguments for regulating, limiting and resisting the 
development of the security-industrial complex but as yet there has been 
precious little debate.

Press release:
http://www.statewatch.org/news/2006/apr/bigbro-press-release.pdf

Five page Summary:
http://www.statewatch.org/news/2006/apr/bigbro-summary.pdf

Copy of full report (pdf):
http://www.statewatch.org/news/2006/apr/bigbrother.pdf

Further information:

Ben Hayes, Statewatch
/t:/ +44 (0)20 8802 1882
/e:/ ben at statewatch.org

Wilbert van der Zeijden, Transnational Institute
+31 (0)20 662 6608
wilbert at tni.org