[Infowarrior] - Arming Big Brother: The EU Security Research Programme

[Richard Forno]

http://www.statewatch.org/news/2006/apr/bigbrother.pdf

Arming Big Brother: The EU s Security Research Programme
Ben Hayes, April 2006

 Overview 

This Statewatch-TNIreport examines the development of the
security-industrial complex in Europe and in particular the development of
the EU Security Research Programme (ESRP). Spawned by the
military-industrial complex, the security-industrial complex has developed
as the traditional boundaries between external security (military) and
internal security (security services) and law enforcement (policing) have
eroded. With the global market for technologies of repression more lucrative
than ever in the wake of 11 September 2001, it is on a healthy expansion
course. The story of the EU Security Research Programme is one of ³Big
Brother² meets market funda- mentalism. It was personified by the
establishment in 2003 of a ³Group of Personalities² (GoP) comprised of EU
officials and Europe¹s biggest arms and IT companies. The GoP¹s concern was
a simple one: European multinationals are losing out to their US competitors
because the US gov- ernment is providing them with a billion dollars a year
for security research ­ it recommended the EU match this level of funding to
ensure a ³level playing field². The European Commission has obliged with a
³preparatory² budget for security research 2004-6, with the full ESRP to
begin in 2007, and appointed anEU Security Research Advisory Board to
oversee the programme. This makes permanent the GoP and gives profit-making
corporations an official status in the EU, shap- ing not just security
research but security policy.

Myriad local and global surveillance systems; the introduction of biometric
identifiers; RFID, elec- tronic tagging and satellite monitoring;
³less-lethal weapons²; paramilitary equipment for public order and crisis
management; and the militarization of border controls ­ technological
advances in law enforcement are often welcomed uncritically but rarely are
these technologies neutral, in either application or effect. Military
organisations dominate research and development in these areas under the
banner of ³dual-use² technology, avoiding both the constraints and
controversies of the arms trade. Tomorrow¹s technologies of control quickly
become today¹s political imperative; con- tentious policies appear
increasingly irresistible. There are strong arguments for regulating, limit-
ing and resisting the development of the security-industrial complex but as
yet there has been pre- cious little debate.

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http://www.statewatch.org/news/2006/apr/bigbrother.pdf