The New Dark Age

26 June 2012 — http://www.statewatch.org/ – e-mail: office@statewatch.org

1.    TURKEY: Readmission: Council of the European Union rushes through agreement
2.    EU: DATA PROTECTION REGULATION: Council of the European Union position
3.    SLOVAKIA::ECHR rules against deportation of convicted terrorist because of risk of torture
4.    EU: Statewatch Analysis: The revised ‘Dublin’ rules on responsibility for asylum-seekers: a missed opportunity
5.    Italy: Appeal by police officers who killed Aldrovandi rejected
6.    Italy/Libya: Refugee day and the agreement with Libya: let’s not repeat the mistakes of the past
7.    UK: Communications Data Bill published
8.    EU-USA: TFTP (SWIFT): Transfer of personal financial data: Europol Activities in Relation to the TFTP Agreement
9     ACTA: European Parliament: Parliament should say NO to ACTA, says International Trade Committee
10.  European Parliament: EP suspends cooperation with Council following decision on Schengen area rules
11.  ACTA: European Parliament: Recommendation from the Committee on Legal Affairs concerning Case T-301/10, Sophie in ‘t Veld v. Commission
12.  EU: European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS): Police should not be exempt from privacy rules, says EU data chief
13.  EU: Council of the European Union: Dublin II, Reception, Visa lists and Eurosur
14.  UK: CAGEPRISONERS: THE ENEMY WITHIN: STATE SURVEILLANCE AND INFILTRATION IN OUR COMMUNITIES
15.  Italy: Political parties found guilty of discrimination in Milan mayoral election campaign
16.  EU: Statewatch Analysis: Amending the EU’s Borders Code
17.  Cyprus: Human rights defender acquitted as police accusations are found “not credible”
18.  EU: European Commission: Communication: EU Strategy towards the Eradication of Trafficking in Human Beings
19.  France: Human Rights Watch denounces France’s involvement in Syrian regime’s military equipment
20.  EU: European Commission press release: Developing a coherent EU Criminal Policy in line with Fundamental Rights
21.  EU: Schengen borders code: Council final compromise text
22.  EU: Parliamentary Assembly of CoE: The situation of human rights defenders in Council of Europe member states
23.  EU: Article 29 Data Protection Working Party: Letter to Commissioner Malmström on smart borders
24.  Spain: Annual report on torture reveals large increase in cases of abuse against demonstrators
25.  UK: Poll reveals widespread international disapproval of drone strikes
26.  Italy: Court upholds appeal against Dublin II transfer to Greece
27.  Europe: Institute of Race Relations: Shocking new report documents patterns of far-right violence across Europe
28.  REVISION OF THE REGULATION ON ACCESS TO EU DOCUMENTS: Talks collapse on access to EU documents
29.  Article 29 Working Party on data protection: Opinion 3/2012 on developments in biometric technologies
30.  CLASSIFIED INFORMATION: Council of the European Union: Answer to parliamentary question
31.  SMART METERING WILL BE ABLE TO COLLECT A MASS OF PERSONAL DATA AND BEHAVIOUR

1. TURKEY: Readmission: Council of the European Union rushes through agreement with Turkey just days before the start of the Cyprus Council Presidency starts on 1 July. The Commission proposal for a Council Decision on the readmission agreement was produced on 22 June and the Council will adopted the Decision at the first meeting of a Council of Ministers held after 26 June. The European Parliament then has to give its “consent”.

Proposal for a Council Decision on the signing, on behalf of the European Union, of the Agreement between the European Union and Republic of Turkey on the readmission of persons residing without authorisation COMMON GUIDELINES: Consultation deadline: 26.06.2012: 
012/jun/eu-council-turkey-readmission-11744-12.pdf

UK statement: 012/jun/eu-council-uk-turkey-readmission-11744-add1-12.pdf
Ireland statement: “Ireland notes that this proposal was presented to Council on 22 June 2012 and that the Council is making a decision on that proposal on 26 June 2012“: 012/jun/eu-council-ireland-turkey-readmission-11744-add2-12.pdf

European Commission: Proposal for a Council Decision concerning the conclusion of the Agreement between the European Union and the Republic of Turkey on the readmission of persons residing without authorisation (COM 239):
012/jun/eu-com-turkey-readmission-com-239.pdf

Proposal for a Council Decision on the signature of the Agreement between the European Union and the Republic of Turkey on readmission of persons residing without authorisation (COM 240): 012/jun/eu-com-turkey-readmission-com-240.pdf

2. EU: DATA PROTECTION REGULATION: Council of the European Union: Proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data (General Data Protection Regulation) (112 pages:
012/jun/eu-council-revised-dp-position-11326-12.pdf

The Council is developing its position.on the new Data Protection Regulation which will replace the 1995 Directive. “Almost all delegations are of the opinion that the proposed regulation contains too many cases of delegated acts. Several delegations have a reservation on the chosen legal form of the proposed instrument and would prefer a Directive” (Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark and Slovenia). Contains 147 Member State reservations on Articles 1-10 and 80(a) and 83.

3.  SLOVAKIA::ECHR rules against deportation of convicted terrorist because of risk of torture (Judgment):
012/jun/echr-labsi-slovakia-judgment.pdf

4. EU: Statewatch Analysis: The revised ‘Dublin’ rules on responsibility for asylum-seekers: a missed opportunity (pdf) by Steve Peers Professor of Law, Law School, University of Essex: http://www.statewatch.org/analyses/no-181-dublin.pdf

012 Regulation upon the practical application of the current Dublin rules is likely to be modest. Indeed so much of the agreed changes simply reflect (or try to anticipate) the established case law and likely further case law developments that one can only conclude that the evolution of the Dublin system will continue to depend more on the role of the courts than upon the Council and the EP.

Any hope for a more substantial change of this highly criticised system will therefore continue to rest with the judiciary, given that none of the EU institutions were willing to consider a radical reform of the system and the EP could only wrest limited changes from the Council as regards any significant improvement of the rules relating to family members and vulnerable persons.”

5.  Italy: Appeal by police officers who killed Aldrovandi rejected
012/jun/16italy-aldrovandi.htm

6. Italy/Libya: Refugee day and the agreement with Libya: let’s not repeat the mistakes of the past
012/jun/15italy-libya.htm

ASGI [Associazione di Studi Giuridici sull’Immigrazione] expresses its deep concern and great bewilderment about the agreement/recorded document sealed between the Italian and Libyan governments in Tripoli on 3 April 2012, for the purpose of enacting cooperation between the two states to counter irregular migrations.

7.  UK: Communications Data Bill published: Full-text: 
012/jun/uk-communications-bill.pdf

see: Brussels could ‘clash’ with London over UK snooper’s charter – ‘Maybe not everyone understands the Treaty of Lisbon’ (The Register, link):
012/06/19/viviane_reding_on_uk_communications_data_bill/

8.  EU-USA: TFTP (SWIFT): Transfer of personal financial data: Europol Activities in Relation to the TFTP Agreement: Information Note to the European Parliament 1 August 2010 – 1 April 2011 (20 pages): 012/jun/eu-usa-tftp-europol-2012.pdf

Letter from Europol to Chair of the LIBE Committee: 012/jun/eu-usa-tftp-europol-ep-letter.pdf
Joint Supervisory Body (JSB): Europol JSB inspects for the 2nd year the implementation of the TFTP Agreement: Public Statement: 
012/jun/eu-usa-tftp-europol-jsb-march-2012.pdf

which says: “In line with the provisions of the Agreement, Europol does not see or manage the SWIFT data or know the amount of data actually transferred. No information has been released by the US regarding the amount of data transferred.”

AGREEMENT: between the European Union and the United States of America on the processing and transfer of Financial Messaging Data from the European Union to the United States for the purposes of the Terrorist Finance Tracking Program: 
012/jun/eu-usa-tftp-agreement-oj.pdf

and see: EU hands personal data to US authorities on daily basis (euobserver, link): “EU and US co-operation in combatting terrorism remains shrouded in secrecy as Europol, the EU police agency, refuses to render public an inspection report that details how financial data is handed over to US authorities. The document, written by the joint-supervisory body (JSB) which supervises the data protection rules are properly applied at Europol, noted on Thursday (21 June) that the EU agency transfers bulk data on a daily basis to the US department of treasury.“: http://euobserver.com/22/116719
 
Search Statewatch’s Database: enter: TFTP: http://database.statewatch.org/search.asp

9  ACTA: European Parliament: Parliament should say NO to ACTA, says International Trade Committee: “Four European Parliament committees (Civil Liberties, Industry, Legal Affairs and Development) had already recommended that Parliament should reject the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), The Petitions Committee discussed five complaints calling on MEPs to reject ACTA, supported by over 2.8 million people from all over the world.”:
012/jun/ep-acta-vote-int-prel.pdf

10. European Parliament: EP suspends cooperation with Council following decision on Schengen area rules:
012/jun/ep-suspend-coop-prel.pdf

The Conference of Presidents (leaders of political groups and the President of the European Parliament)decided today in Strasbourg that the European Parliament would suspend its cooperation with the Council on five dossiers until a satisfactory outcome is achieved on Schengen governance. The five dossiers covered by the Conference of Presidents’ decision are the following: 1) Amendment of Schengen border code and Convention implementing the Schengen Agreement; 2) Judicial cooperation in criminal matters: combating attacks against information systems; 3) European Investigation Order; 4) Budget 2013 aspects relating to Internal Security and 5) EU Passenger Name Records.

11.  ACTA: European Parliament: Recommendation from the Committee on Legal Affairs concerning Case T-301/10, Sophie in ‘t Veld v. Commission. The case concerns the Commission’s refusal to give full access to document concerning the ACTA negotiations: 
http://www.statewatch.org/news/2012/jun/ep-ecj-case-In-%27T-Veld-%20Acta.pdf

12.  EU: European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS): Police should not be exempt from privacy rules, says EU data chief (euobserver, link):
http://euobserver.com/22/116706

and see: Annual Report: Executive Summary: 012/jun/eu-edps-ann-rep-summary-2011.pdf

“the EDPS report describes including police and justice authorities in the legislation as “a conditio sine qua non (without which there is nothing) for effective data protection”. Although MEPs are anxious to ensure that the new data protection rules cover government agencies as well as businesses, it is understood that a number of member states are keen to remove law enforcement authorities from the scope of the directive, regarding this as an exclusively national competence.”

and See: Commission data protection reforms under fire (euobserver, link): http://euobserver.com/22/116129
 
““The Working Party has serious reservations with regard to the extent the commission is empowered to adopt delegated and implementing acts, which is especially relevant because a fundamental right is at stake,” the Article 29 Data Protection Working Party…

The working party pointed out that in Reding’s regulation a number of issues including data breach notification and mutual assistance could only be applied using such acts. And the use of them are at the commission’s discretion. “The adoption of delegated or implementing acts for a large numbers of articles may take several years and could represent legal uncertainty,” it said.”

13.  EU: Council of the European Union: Dublin II, Reception, Visa lists and Eurosur

– DUBLIN II: Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing the criteria and mechanisms for determining the Member State responsible for examining an application for international protection lodged in one of the Member States by a third-country national or a stateless person [First reading] – Outcome of the trilogue (4-column, 232 pages):
012/jun/eu-council-dublin-II-compromise-11467-12.pdf

– RECEPTION: Amended proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council laying down standards for the reception of asylum seekers (recast) [First reading] – Outcome of the trilogue (4-column, 190 pages):
012/jun/eu-council-reception-trilogue-multicolumn-11466-12.pdf

– VISA LISTS: Draft Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Council Regulation (EC) No 539/2001 listing the third countries whose nationals must be in possession of visas when crossing the external borders and those whose nationals are exempt from that requirement:
012/jun/eu-council-visa-list-reciprocity-11603-12.pdf

– EUROSUR: Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing the European Border Surveillance System (EUROSUR): 
012/jun/eu-council-eurosur-11437-12.pdf

14. UK: CAGEPRISONERS: THE ENEMY WITHIN: STATE SURVEILLANCE AND INFILTRATION IN OUR COMMUNITIES (link):
http://www.cageprisoners.com/our-work/events/item/4309-the-enemy-within-state-surveillance-and-infiltration-in-our-communities

15.  Italy: Political parties found guilty of discrimination in Milan mayoral election campaign
012/jun/14italy-discrimination.htm

16. EU: Statewatch Analysis: Amending the EU’s Borders Code (pdf) by Steve Peers, Professor of Law, Law School, University of Essex (Second version: revised June 2012):  http://www.statewatch.org/analyses/no-180-schengen-border-code.pdf

“The basic rules concerning the control of the EU’s external borders are set out in the Schengen borders Code (the ‘Code’), which replaced a number of prior measures, including the ‘Common Manual’ for border guards drawn up to implement the Schengen Convention… This analysis examines the current state-of-play of the negotiation of the 2011 proposals, and indicates their possible impact.”

17. Cyprus: Human rights defender acquitted as police accusations are found “not credible”
012/jun/13cyprus-human-rights-defender-acquitted.html

See also: EU: Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe: Report from the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights: The situation of human rights defenders in Council of Europe member states: 012/jun/eu-coe-parliamentary-assembly-human-rights-defenders.pdf

18. EU: European Commission: Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions: The EU Strategy towards the Eradication of Trafficking in Human Beings 2012–2016 (Com 2012 286):
012/jun/eu-com-human-trafficking-286-12.pdf

See also: Commission memos: An EU Strategy towards the eradication of trafficking in Human beings (europa website, link)
http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=MEMO/12/455&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en

Combatting the slavery of our times: 40 new measures for an EU strategy against trafficking in human beings (europa website, link)
http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/12/619&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en

19. France: Human Rights Watch denounces France’s involvement in Syrian regime’s military equipment:
012/jun/12france-syria-hrw.html

20.  EU: European Commission press release: Developing a coherent EU Criminal Policy in line with Fundamental Rights: Commission gathers high-level experts (europa website, link): http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/12/621&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en

21. EU: Schengen borders code: Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Council Regulation (EC) No 562/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing a Community Code on the rules governing the movement of persons across borders (Schengen Borders Code) and the Convention implementing the Schengen Agreement – Approval of the final compromise text with a view to an agreement at first reading (11463/12). Presumably the EP will not vote on this until they have settled their dispute with the Council over the Schengen evaluation proposals: 
012/jun/eu-schengen-borders-code-11463-12.pdf

22. EU: Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe: Report from the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights: The situation of human rights defenders in Council of Europe member states: 012/jun/eu-coe-parliamentary-assembly-human-rights-defenders.pdf

The Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights considers the situation of human rights defenders in Europe and concludes that it is far from satisfactory. In particular, in some Council of Europe member States, human rights defenders are the victims of serious crimes, ranging from abduction and torture to murder.

23. EU: Article 29 Data Protection Working Party: Letter to Commissioner Malmström on smart borders (12/06/12):
012/jun/eu-article29-letter-smart-borders.pdf

“The need for such a massive volume of data collection in this area is not supported by reliable data…the systems could cast an ‘unpleasant shadow’ on the EU in its treatment of third countries nationals, in particular those in need of international protection, in the light of EU and ECHR legal requirements.” Moreover, “even if it is established that an EES would be necessary for the purpose of preventing and detecting overstay, this would not be a justification to grant law-enforcement access as well.”

24. Spain: Annual report on torture reveals large increase in cases of abuse against demonstrators
012/jun/11spain-torture-annual-report.html

25.  UK: Poll reveals widespread international disapproval of drone strikes
012/jun/10uk-drone-strikes-poll.html

A new poll shows that there is widespread international opposition to the US military’s use of drones in countries such as Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia, with over 50% of respondents in 17 out of 20 countries indicating that they disapprove of the controversial tactic.

26. Italy: Court upholds appeal against Dublin II transfer to Greece
012/jun/09italy-dublinii-greece.html

On 12 April 2012, a regional administrative court in Rome upheld an appeal against a transfer to Greece issued under Dublin II regulation rules. This decision annulled the order for K.K., a Congolese national who lodged an asylum application in Italy on 8 April 2009, to be transferred in order for the Greek authorities to take charge of his application.

27. Europe: Institute of Race Relations: Shocking new report documents patterns of far-right violence across Europe: Pedlars of Hate: the violent impact of the European far Right (link): http://www.irr.org.uk/news/the-truth-about-far-right-violence/

28. REVISION OF THE REGULATION ON ACCESS TO EU DOCUMENTS: Talks collapse on access to EU documents (euobserver, link):
http://euobserver.com/18/116609

“The Danish presidency has abandoned attempts to agree new rules on access to EU documents. It took the decision on Tuesday (12 June) after EU countries and the European Commission last week rejected its latest draft of the law. It still aims to get MEPs to back a commission proposal to extend existing rules on freedom of information to all EU institutions – including its 31 agencies – however….The incoming Cypriot presidency might pick up where Denmark left off. But the failed talks have left behind a prickly atmosphere.”

Tony Bunyan, Statewatch Director, comments:

“This is a victory for common sense, all the alternatives on the table would have fundamentally undermined openness. However, the intention of the Council Presidency to push through the Commission’s 2011 proposal to “Lisbonise” the Regulation is not as simple as they seem to think.

The 2011 proposal would simply extend the scope of the Regulation to EU agencies and bodies but this does not meet the requirements of the Lisbon Treaty. Under Articles 15.1 to 15.3, the Council and the European Parliament have to meet in public when considering draft legislative acts and to ensure the publication of the documents relating to legislative procedures. This gives the European Parliament a real opportunity to insist that the Treaty obligations are fully met.
All the documents concerning legislative procedures have to be made public, including those discussed between the two legislatures (the Council and the European Parliament) in 1st and 2nd reading trilogue meetings which are currently kept secret.”

See Statewatch Analyses: Proposed Commission changes to Regulation on access to documents fail to meet Lisbon Treaty commitments: 
http://www.statewatch.org/analyses/no-130-access-docs-com-new.pdf

and Secret trilogues and the democratic deficit: http://www.statewatch.org/news/2007/sep/ep-co-decision-secret-trilogues.pdf

29.: Article 29 Working Party on data protection: Opinion 3/2012 on developments in biometric technologies:
012/jun/eu-art-28-dp-bio-wp193.pdf

European Data Protection Authorities adopt opinion on cookie consent exemption: 
012/jun/eu-wp-29-dp-cookies.pdf

30. CLASSIFIED INFORMATION: Council of the European Union: Answer to parliamentary question: Breakdown of documents by security classification levels: 
012/jun/eu-council-classified-dcuments-figs-10684-12.pdf

Over the three years 2009-2011 out of a total of 25,324 classified documents 23,779 were in the lowest category of “Restricted”. “Restricted is defined as a document whose disclosure would be “disadvantageous” to the interest of the EU or a Member State.

31.: SMART METERING WILL BE ABLE TO COLLECT A MASS OF PERSONAL DATA AND BEHAVIOUR: European Data Protection Supervisor: Smart meters: consumer profiling will track much more than energy consumption if not properly safeguarded, says the EDPS (Press release):
012/jun/eu-edps-smartmetering-prel.pdf

and Full-text of Opinion: 012/jun/eu-edps-smartmetering-opinion.pdf

“While the Europe-wide rollout of smart metering systems may bring significant benefits, it will also enable massive collection of personal data which can track what members of a household do within the privacy of their own homes, whether they are away on holiday or at work, if someone uses a specific medical device or a baby-monitor, how they like to spend their free time and so on. These patterns can be useful for analysing our energy use for energy conservation but together with data from other sources, the potential for extensive data mining is very significant. Patterns and profiles can be used for many other purposes, including marketing, advertising and price discrimination by third parties.” 

Giovanni Buttarelli, Assistant EDPS, says: “the EDPS calls on the Commission to assess whether further legislative action is necessary at EU level to ensure adequate protection of personal data for the roll-out of smart metering systems an – in his Opinion – provides pragmatic recommendations for such legislative action. Some of these recommendations can already be implemented via an amendment to the Energy Efficiency Directive, which is currently before the Council and Parliament. These should at least include a mandatory requirement for controllers to conduct a data protection impact assessment and an obligation to notify personal data breaches.”
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