The New Dark Age

4 February 2013 — Home page: http://www.statewatch.org/  e-mail: office@statewatch.org

1.    EU: Council of the European Union: Visa lists and Intra-Corporate Transferees
2.    USA: BODY SCANNERS: Rapiscan Backscatter Contract Terminated – Units to be Removed
3.    EU: Solidarity or militarisation? Proposed ‘solidarity clause’ legislation criticised for lack of clarity and “encouraging armament”
4.    EU: European Parliament: Question to the European Commission: Review of liquids and body scanner rules
5.    UK: House of Commons Select Committee on Home Affairs: Independent Police Complaints Commission
6.    EU: Justice and Home Affairs: Table of measures subject to Protocol 36 : List of 133 measures to be “Lisbonised” by 2014
7.    GERMANY: Secret government document reveals: German Federal Police plans to use Gamma FinFisher spyware
8.    EU: DATA PROTECTION REGULATION
9.    EU: Europe’s police and immigration “mobile identification” enthusiasts prepare to regroup during Irish Presidency of the EU
10.  UK: Expulsion of two leading participants in Yarl’s Wood protest is “political reprisal,” say campaigners
11.  EU-USA: US free to grab EU data on American clouds
12   EU: Two legal systems in conflict; a perspective on the proposed EU data rules and its possible consequences
13.  EU: PRIVACY: The Brussels Privacy Declaration: “Privacy is a fundamental human right, but today this right is widely ignored. We are outraged.”:
14.  UK: UN Special Rapporteur calls for a “judge-led public inquiry” into undercover police operations and condemns a number of other police practices
15.  Council of Europe wants ‘racist and anti-semitic’ members ousted
16.  EU: MEDIA: Report by High Level Group on Media Freedom and Pluralism: A free and pluralistic media to sustain European democracy
17.  EU: Council of the European Union: Implementation of the principle of mutual recognition to judgments in criminal matters
18.  EU: Council of the European Union: LEA access to Eurodac: Multi-column document:
19. EU: European Commission: implementation by the Union of the Solidarity clause
20. Greece/Italy: Detainees’ rights overrule absconding and rioting charges, courts rule
21. UK: “Off pockets” and “anti-drone hoodies”: Personal privacy meets high fashion
22. EU: European Data Protection Supervisor: EDPS Inventory 2013
23. European Parliament:Hungary
24. EU IRISS project: Increasing resilience: in surveillance societies: Surveillance, fighting crime and violence report
25. UK: Outrage as High Court permits secrecy over undercover policing
26. EU: Commission defends privileged access for big business in court
27. UK: Police demand DNA samples from gay men
28. EU: Frontex chief looks beyond EU borders
29. UK: NEW EU DATA PROTECTION REGULATION: Scale of UK Government’s opposition
30. EU Council of the European Union: Eurosur, Eurodac and Intra-corporare transferees

1.  EU: Council of the European Union: Visa lists and Intra-Corporate Transferees

– 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 (Doc no: 5603-13, pdf): Related to trilogue meetings with the European Parliament: “The Annex contains a revised text for the reciprocity mechanism, based on replacing the reference to delegated acts in the previous text by a system with some degree of automaticity and including the use of implementing acts of the Council.”:
013/feb/eu-council-visa-tc-list-reciprocity-5603-13.pdf

– Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on conditions of entry and residence of third-country nationals in the framework of an intra-corporate transfer (110 pages, 5573-13, pdf): Multi-column document showing: Commission proposal, the European Parliament’s “Orientation vote”, the Council position and Comments by the Council: 013/feb/eu-council-itc-multicolumn-5573-13.pdf

2.  USA: BODY SCANNERS: Rapiscan Backscatter Contract Terminated – Units to be Removed (TSA blog, link). 
013/01/rapiscan-backscatter-contract.html

Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) report: “TSA to Pull ‘Naked’ Body Scanners from All US Airports: The Transportation Security Administration is ending the agency’s contract with backscatter x-ray device manufacturer Rapiscan. As a result, all backscatter machines, which produce a detailed naked image of air travelers, will be removed from US airports. The backscatter x-ray scanners will be replaced by millimeter wave scanners, a less-intrusive but still controversial scanning technology.”

3. EU: Solidarity or militarisation? Proposed ‘solidarity clause’ legislation criticised for lack of clarity and “encouraging armament”:
013/feb/01-solidarity-clause.htm

Proposed EU legislation that would oblige EU institutions and Member States to provide assistance to a Member State that is “the object of a terrorist attack or the victim of a natural or man-made disaster” has been criticised by MEPs who say that it “encourages armament” and “paves the way for military interventions within the EU.” The claim, made by the MEPs Sabine Lösing and Willy Meyer of the European United Left/Nordic Green Left group, came in response to a report of the Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee in October last year that urged the Commission and the High Representative of the EU for Foreign and Security Policy to publish their proposal for implementation of Article 222 of the Lisbon Treaty – the solidarity clause – “before the end of 2012.”

4.  EU: European Parliament: Question to the European Commission: Review of liquids and body scanner rules:
013/jan/ep-question-to-com-liquids-ban.pdf

5.  UK: House of Commons Select Committee on Home Affairs: Independent Police Complaints Commission:
013/feb/uk-hasc-ipcc-report.pdf

Press release: 013 at 00.01 (Eleventh Report, Session 2012-13, HC 494). The Committee finds that: the Commission is overloaded with appeal cases; serious cases involving police corruption or misconduct are left underinvestigated, while the Commission devotes resources to less serious complaints; and public trust continues to be undermined by the IPCC’s dependence on former officers and the investigative resources of police forces.”

6.  EU: Justice and Home Affairs: Table of measures subject to Protocol 36 : List of 133 measures to be “Lisbonised” by 2014 with links to documents:
013/jan/eu-jha-table-of-measures-subject-to-Protocol-36.pdf

7. GERMANY: Secret government document reveals: German Federal Police plans to use Gamma FinFisher spyware (Netzpolitik.org): 
013/secret-government-document-reveals-german-federal-police-plans-to-use-gamma-finfisher-spyware/

“The German Federal Police office has purchased the commercial Spyware toolkit FinFisher of Eleman/Gamma Group. This is revealed by a secret document of the Ministry of the Interior, which we are publishing exclusively. Instead of legitimizing products used by authoritarian regimes for the violation of human rights, the German state should restrict the export of such state malware”

8.  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) (Doc 165-29-12). The Council working on its negotiating position
013/jan/eu-council-dp-reg-16529-12.pdf

– Chart comparing the 1995 Directive and the Proposed new Regulation (148 pages):
013/jan/Table%20eu-dp-reg-chart-1995-comparison.pdf

– Chart comparing the 1995 Directive and the Proposed new Regulation with Recitals
013/jan/Table%20eu-dp-reg-chart-with-recitals-1995-comparison.pdf

9.  EU: Europe’s police and immigration “mobile identification” enthusiasts prepare to regroup during Irish Presidency of the EU:
013/jan/12-eu-mobile-identification.html

An informal working group that seeks to “bring together good practice and advice to member states in relation to developing and using mobile ID devices for police and immigration services” is preparing to regroup during late March with a meeting in Dublin, organised in association with the Irish Presidency of the EU.

10.  UK: Expulsion of two leading participants in Yarl’s Wood protest is “political reprisal,” say campaigners
013/jan/11-uk-yarls-wood.html

The decision to deport by charter flight two women who played key roles in recent protests at the Yarl’s Wood immigration detention centre has provoked outrage amongst their supporters.

11. EU-USA: US free to grab EU data on American clouds (euobserver, link)
http://euobserver.com/justice/118857

12 EU: Two legal systems in conflict; a perspective on the proposed EU data rules and its possible consequences (wobbing.eu, link):
http://www.wobbing.eu/news/new-data-rules-will-collide-fundamental-rights-commission-admits

“Suggested new EU rules for data protection might not only ban blogs, Facebook updates, and tweets. Authorities will have to redact official archives by deleting names in documents. Member states are told to find their own way to secure fundamental rights.”

13. EU: PRIVACY: The Brussels Privacy Declaration (link): “Privacy is a fundamental human right, but today this right is widely ignored. We are outraged.”:
http://brusselsdeclaration.net/

14. UK: UN Special Rapporteur calls for a “judge-led public inquiry” into undercover police operations and condemns a number of other police practices:
013/jan/10-un-uk-policing.htm

A wide number of policing practices in the UK have been condemned as “indiscriminate”, “disproportionate” and in contravention of human rights standards by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, Maina Kiai, who today concluded a visit to the country. He has called for “a judge-led public inquiry into the Mark Kennedy matter, and other related cases.”

15. Council of Europe wants ‘racist and anti-semitic’ members ousted (euractiv, link): “The parliamentary assembly of the Strasbourg-based Council of Europe is considering a ban on some of its far-right members if they are affiliated with parties that are “neo-Nazi, racist and anti-Semitic”:
http://www.euractiv.com/print/elections/council-europe-challenges-creden-news-517217

16. EU: MEDIA: Report by High Level Group on Media Freedom and Pluralism: A free and pluralistic media to sustain European democracy: 
013/jan/eu-hlg-media.pdf

See also: EU should act on press violations, report says (euobserver, link)
http://euobserver.com/social/118802

17. EU: Council of the European Union: Implementation of the Council Framework Decision 2008/909/JHA on the application of the principle of mutual recognition to judgments in criminal matters imposing custodial sentences or measures involving deprivation of liberty for the purpose of their enforcement in the European Union – Information provided to the General Secretariat: 013/jan/eu-council-eurodac-trilogue-multicolumn-5403-13.pdf

18. EU: Council of the European Union: LEA access to Eurodac: Multi-column document showing the state of play in the trilogue discussion between the Council and the European Parliament: Amended proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the establishment of ‘EURODAC’ for the comparison of fingerprints for the effective application of Regulation (EU) No […/…] (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) and to request comparisons with EURODAC data by Member States’ law enforcement authorities and Europol for law enforcement purposes and amending Regulation (EU) No 1077/2011 establishing a European Agency for the operational management of large-scale IT systems in the area of freedom, security and justice (Recast version)xx (5403-13, 17 January, 2013, 229 pages). The 4th column gives the proposed “compromises”: 013/jan/eu-council-eurodac-trilogue-multicolumn-5403-13.pdf
 
19. EU: European Commission: Joint Proposal for a Council Decision on the arrangements for the implementation by the Union of the Solidarity clause (JOIN document no 39-12) from the Commission and High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy:
013/jan/eu-com-solidarity-clause-art-222-18124-12.pdf

“Article 222 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) contains a new provision for a ‘Solidarity Clause’. Under this provision the Union and its Member States must act jointly in a spirit of solidarity if a Member State is the object of a terrorist attack or the victim of a natural or man-made disaster.” This requires a new provision affecting the EU Internal Security Strategy, the Union Civil Protection Mechanism and the Civil Protection Financial Instrument, the EU Solidarity Fund; the health security initiative for serious cross-border threats to health, crisis response and analysis structures in the EEAS; and the Crisis Coordination Arrangements in the Council.

The relevant structures are in the Commission (DG ECHO, HOME, SANCO, TAXUD etc.), or in EU decentralised agencies (FRONTEX, ECDC, EUROPOL, EMSA, EFSA, EMA etc.). The European External Action Service has at its disposal structures with situation awareness, intelligence or military expertise as well as the network of Delegations that may contribute to the response to threats or disasters in the territory of Member States or to crises with an external dimension.

20. Greece/Italy: Detainees’ rights overrule absconding and rioting charges, courts rule
013/jan/08-greece-italy.htm

Two recent judgments in Italy and Greece have found detainees innocent of the charges that were brought against them by the local authorities following escape from one migration detention centre and rioting in another. Courts ruled that the actions of detained migrants in opposing their detention conditions were legitimate.

21. UK: “Off pockets” and “anti-drone hoodies”: Personal privacy meets high fashion
013/jan/09-counter-surveillance-clothing.htm

A New York-based artist has developed a range of clothing and accessories that can thwart thermal imaging cameras and instantly “zero out” mobile phone signals, making them untraceable, in an attempt to raise awareness of mass surveillance and explore ways for individuals to protect their privacy.

22. EU: European Data Protection Supervisor: EDPS Inventory 2013: data protection is essential across all EU policy areas (Press release)
013/jan/eu-edps-inventory-2013-prel.pdf

and Inventory for 2013: 013/jan/eu-edps-inventory-2013.pdf

23. European Parliament:Hungary: 

Working Document no 1: Judiciary: 013/jan/ep-working-doc-1-hungary-judiciary.pdf
Working Document no 3: Media: 013/jan/ep-working-doc-3-hungary-media.pdf

24. EU IRISS project: Increasing resilience: in surveillance societies: Surveillance, fighting crime and violence report (415 pages, link):
012/02/IRISS_D1_MASTER_DOCUMENT_17Dec20121.pdf

25. UK: Outrage as High Court permits secrecy over undercover policing (Police spies out of lives, link):
http://policespiesoutoflives.org.uk/?p=363

“The High Court has today granted an application by the Metropolitan Police for a secret hearing over the claims brought against them under the Human Rights Act, arising from undercover officers engaging in intimate long term relationships with women whilst undercover. The Claimants, who were involved in protest movements, were deceived into intimate sexual relationships by officers, including Mark Kennedy.” 

– Court judgment: 013/jan/uk–police-undercover-judgment.pdf
– Court Summary: 013/jan/uk–police-undercover-summary.pdf

26. EU: Commission defends privileged access for big business in court (Corporate Observatory Europe, link):
http://corporateeurope.org/blog/commission-defends-privileged-access-big-business-court

27. UK: Police demand DNA samples from gay men: Men convicted of victimless homosexual offences three decades ago are threatened with arrest if they refuse to provide  samples for the national DNA database (New Statesman, link):
013/01/police-demand-dna-samples-gay-men

See also: “Operation Nutmeg”: Cold case hope as police set out to collect 12,000 DNA samples (BBC News, link):
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-19751089

28. EU: Frontex chief looks beyond EU borders (euobserver, link):
http://euobserver.com/fortress-eu/118471

29. UK: NEW EU DATA PROTECTION REGULATION: Scale of UK Government’s opposition to the proposed Data Protection Regulation and Directive made absolutely clear (Hawktalk, link):
013/01/scale-of-uk-governments-opposition-to-the-proposed-data-protection-regulation-and-directive-made-abs.html

See: House of Commons: Justice Committee: The Committee’s opinion on the European Union Data Protection framework proposals (128 pages):
013/jan/uk-justice-cttee-eu-data-protection-proposals.pdf

Government response to Justice Select Committee’s opinion on the European Union Data Protection framework proposals:
013/jan/uk-gov-response-to-justice-re-eu-data-protection-proposals.pdf

30. EU Council of the European Union: Eurosur, Eurodac and Intra-corporare transferees

Multi-column documents produced during 1st reading trilogue discussions with the European Parliament giving the original proposal, the position of the European Parliament and “compromise” suggestions:

– LEAs acess to Eurodac: Council on the establishment of ‘EURODAC’ for the comparison of fingerprints for the effective application of Regulation (EU) No […/…] 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) and to request comparisons with EURODAC data by Member States’ law enforcement authorities and Europol for law enforcement purposes and amending Regulation (EU) No 1077/2011 stablishing a European Agency for the operational management of large-scale IT systems in the area of freedom, security and justice (Recast version) (223 pages, 5515-13, pdf) For the first time the European Parliament’s position is public
013/jan/eu-council-eurodac-multicolumn-5155-13.pdf

– EUROSUR: Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing the European Border Surveillance System (EUROSUR) (77 pages):
013/jan/eu-council-eurosur-multicolumn-5238-13.pdf

– ICT: Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on conditions of entry and residence of third-country nationals in the framework of an intra-corporate transfer (109 pages,5106-13): 013/jan/eu-council-ic-transferees-5106-13.pdf 

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