Last week the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs in the European Parliament for the first time discussed the European Commission’s proposal for the establishment of a fingerprint databasefor foreigners (“Smart Borders”). The proposal stipulates that in the future all ten fingerprints of foreigners who enter and exit…

The European Commission proposes new technologies for the surveillance and control of travellers at the EU external borders. With the so called “smart borders” package all foreigners will be registered with fingerprints when entering or leaving the EU. It is envisaged that in the future the police could also get…

The European Parliament will soon start working on the proposal of the European Commission on a European Border Surveillance System (Eurosur). We have compiled a list of questions that we consider crucial for Eurosur. Please contact us, if you have any idea on how to answer them and how to…

The European Border Surveillance System (Eurosur)1 is a roadmap for significantly stepping up the surveillance of the EU external borders against irregular migration and cross-border crime. Once Eurosur is fully developed, drones and satellites will help Frontex, the EU agency for external border control, to detect migrant vessels already when they are departing from…

The Commission just published a communication on „smart borders“.1 It aims to promote new electronic technologies for controlling travellers at the EU external borders along the lines of a similar US system. The Greens oppose this initiative as excessive both in terms of oversight, red tape, and costs. What are smart borders? With…

The Director of the Fundamental Rights Agency presented the annual report of the agency for the year 2010. Among other aspects he criticised heavily the situation in many refugee camps in a couple of countries and requested to stop deportations to those countries. For the annual report please click the…

Budget My report on the negotiations on the budget has been adopted. The Committee wants more financial resources for the funds for refugees and integration as well as for programs to come, which have not been decided yet. But we lost two amendments: the majority of committee members wants the…

Budget mandate Ska presented her report on the freedom, security and justice related matters in the negotiations on the 2012 budget. We propose to base the budget on the Stockholm Programme as this defines the Union’s priorities in the area. We ask for a proper evaluation of existing programs and projects before…

News of the Committee of Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) New mandate for Frontex Unfortunately we lost most of our own amendments in the votes of the new mandate Frontex: we could not find a majority for our postulations to clarify the responsibilities for the Agency, to prevent…