This Policy Brief offers an analysis of European security practices vis-à-vis the Mediterranean in terms of their repercussions in the south and policy implications for the EU. The security practices of member states and the EU can be categorised under three policy areas: immigration control, counter-terrorism and democracy promotion. What follows is an analysis of the consequences of these practices in terms of their effects on individuals, societies and states in the south, and a discussion of the possible policy implications for the EU.

The European Commission published in November 2010 a Communication aiming at putting the EU Internal Security Strategy (ISS) into action. The Communication envisages five key strategic objectives for the EU’s internal security: disrupt organised crime, prevent terrorism, raise levels of security in cyberspace, strengthen external borders management and increase the EU’s resilience to natural disasters.

This working paper analyses the flow of Roma migrants, in particular asylum seekers, from the Czech Republic and Hungary to Canada in 1996–2010. Although the fate of the Roma is at the centre of events, statistics on asylum applications along with an interpretation of the history of migration issues, from the perspectives of both international relations and EU policy, illustrate the classical debate on state sovereignty versus universal or at least European solidarity. They reflect the debate on the binding human rights of fragile groups versus security preconditions and prejudices.

This paper examines state protection as applied to the Roma minority group in the Czech Republic and the link to Roma refugee claimants in Canada. The paper traces measures implemented by the Czech national authorities to improve the situation of the Roma, but also continuing problems of discrimination and violence by state and non-state actors.

The relationship between EU policy and the rights of undocumented migrants remains in tension. The status and treatment granted to undocumented migrants continues to be ‘invisible’ in EU policy strategies and responses. This is so despite the wide recognition and evidence of the vulnerability and insecurities these persons face in their access to fundamental rights.

The summer of 2010 will long be remembered in Europe for what has become known as “l’affaire des Roms” in France. The case has revealed profound institutional tensions at EU level between the French government and the European Commission and the European Parliament. The political spectacle that has unfolded has only complicated and added confusion to the actual nature and relevance of the affair from an EU perspective.

This paper outlines the key changes brought about by the Lisbon Treaty for citizens of the Union. Among the most important is access to EU fundamental rights through the legal effect that has been given through the Lisbon Treaty to the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. The three main consequences of this access to rights are:
• Citizens of the EU now have a Charter of Rights that is legally binding and which their state authorities must deliver in accordance with their duty of good faith to the EU;

Profiling through predictive data mining is already a reality worldwide, including in the European Union. This modern technique relies on the massive processing of personal data in order to identify patterns that allow for the automatic categorisation of individuals. Yet no satisfactory debate is taking place on how the use of profiling in this particular area can encroach upon the fundamental rights and freedoms of individuals, argue the authors of this INEX Policy Brief.

The proliferation of large-scale databases containing personal information, and the multiple uses to which they can be put, can be highly problematic from the perspective of fundamental rights and freedoms. This paper discusses two landmark decisions that illustrate some of the risks linked to these developments and point to a better framing of such practices: the Heinz Huber v. Germany judgement, from the European Court of Justice, and the S. and Marper v. United Kingdom ruling, from the European Court of Human Rights. The paper synthesises the lessons to be learnt from such decisions.

We live in a world where global data transfers are presented as a norm; just part of life. It is when the individual’s right to privacy is overridden by the state’s appreciation of a need to know about that individual that problems arise. In this Policy Brief of the Justice & Home Affairs INEX series, CEPS Senior Research Fellow Elspeth Guild considers such questions as: what are the principles of privacy? What is necessary in a democratic society and what is the role of supranational and national courts in determining the meaning of privacy, and for whom?

This Policy Brief calls for a comprehensive understanding of the internal/external security landscape from an EU perspective. The expansion of activities and policies that favour a closed Union, with the extensive investment in counter-terrorism, has the potential of becoming counterproductive for the safety of EU citizens. The EU’s common foreign and security policy should instead focus on adopting an approach that is firmly in line with the principles of human security.

This paper examines the Roadmap for strengthening procedural rights of suspected or accused persons in criminal proceeding in the EU that was adopted by the Council on 30 November 2009. It begins with a brief exposition of the general policy framework for understanding the Council’s Roadmap and its connection with the Stockholm Programme, subsequently adopted by the European Council of 10/11 December 2009, which spells out the policy priorities that will guide the EU’s AFSJ for the years 2010-14.

IN:EX Policy Brief is the fourth in the series so far and focuses on Euro-Mediterranean relations in the field of security. It analyses the treatment given to the security agenda in the Barcelona Process, noting that regional conflicts have undermined the development of cooperation in this field and that the partners have opted for the more pragmatic approach of bilateral or sub-regional frameworks.

There is very little information about or reflection upon the Mediterranean countries’ perspectives on EU security policies, concludes Pinar Bilgin of Bilkent University, Ankara, in this literature review of the ethical dimensions of the subject.