File:Neoconopticon-report-summary.pdf

The EU Security-Industrial Complex

The NeoConOpticon is a new report from the Transnational Institute (TNI) and Statewatch by Ben Hayes. It examines the development and implementation of the European Security Research Programme (ESRP), a €1.4 billion EU ‘R&D’ budget line focused predominantly on surveillance and other law enforcement technologies. It reveals the extent to which the design of the programme has been outsourced to some of the corporations that have most to gain from its implementation.

The research examined all 85 of the projects funded under the EU security research programme to the end of 2008, together with several thousand related EUfunded R&D projects from other thematic programmes. What also emerges from the bewildering array of contracts, acronyms and EU policies is the development of a powerful new ‘interoperable’ European surveillance system that will be used for civilian, commercial, police, security and defence purposes alike.

Defence giants including Thales, Finmeccanica, EADS, Saab and Sagem Défénsé Sécurité are amongst a host of corporations to which the European Commission has turned to help set the agenda for security research, develop Homeland Security strategies for Europe, and bring the relevant security technologies ‘to market’. The report also reveals the full extent of Israel’s participation in a rapidly developing EU security-industrial complex, which is controversial in the light of widespread criticism of Israel's security policies and human rights record.

This comprehensive audit of the ESRP shows that there has been only minimal democratic scrutiny of the programme and even less monitoring of its implementation. Ad hoc bodies created outside the formal EU decision-making structure like the “Group of Personalities”, “Security Research Advisory Board” and “Security Research and Innovation Forum” have instituted a ‘revolving door’ between multinational defence and IT contractors and government officials tasked with developing security policies at national and EU level.

The explicit aim of these bodies has been the integration of the ‘supply’ and ‘demand’ sides of ‘Homeland Security’. Despite the stated commitment of the ESRP to the protection of privacy and civil liberties, critical civil society organisations, including privacy and civil liberties advocates, have been conspicuous by their absence. This framework of governance has promoted a range of security technologies that could engender systematic violations of fundamental rights.