[Gipfelsoli Newsletter] Intra-EU-Security and G8 2009 in Maddalena

[International Newsletter]

*Collapsing the European security architecture*

german: http://gipfelsoli.org/Home/Maddalena_2009/4818.html
italiano: http://roma.indymedia.org/node/1884

*For greater security-critical behaviour in Europe*
*A proposal for the resistance movement against the G8 2009 in Italy*

Each protest enables us to draw conclusions of how to do things better 
next time. In the same way, we can draw conclusions from the 
mobilisation against the G8 summit 2007 in Heiligendamm on how to 
achieve successful and broad resistance. Apart from three large 
self-organised protest camps and an international infotour in the months 
leading up to the summit, there were attempts to have international 
exchanges and establish networks beyond Germany. The decision was made 
not to respond to the G8 climate debate but to frame the protests in 
terms of other self-determined topics the movement was focussing on: 
migration, antimilitarism and global agriculture.

Looking ahead to the G8 2009 in Italy, this text takes up these points 
to propose a campaign against the new “European Security Architecture“. 
We outline some developments in police cooperation on a European level 
and call for a kind of antirepression work that goes beyond a simple 
critique and a scandalising police violence, and that is coordinated on 
a European level. Such political antirepression work would have to take 
new forms of social control seriously as an integral reference point for 
radical movements.

*No future for freedom*

At the latest since September 11th 2001, not only the foreign policy 
coordinates of the European Union (EU) have changed. Under the motto 
“Terror Comes Home”, far-reaching changes in European Home Affairs, 
along with police operations towards a “preventive security state” have 
been implemented. Whilst control of the external EU border has been 
stepped up with new technologies and cross-border cooperation, 
surveillance and control within the EU is also steadily increasing. 
Additionally, there are foreign military and police operations on behalf 
of the EU in so-called “third countries”. The EU intends to be a model 
for a security complex that can be exported to other countries in the 
EU’s capacity as a “service provider”. These developments are not only 
directed at  migrants and “security-critical” behavior. They also offer 
a welcome opportunity to control the re-emerging alterglobalisation 
movement.

Since 1999, the EU has defined Europe as a “space of freedom, security 
and law”. In future there will be more juridical and police cooperation 
in criminal and civil affairs. Home Affairs ministers dream of an EU 
ministry for Home Affairs. A key figure is Franco Frattini, the EU 
Commissioner for Law, Liberty and Security. Frattini is a member of the 
Italian Berlusconi-party “Forza Italia” and vice-president of the 
European Commission.

On the police level, EU bodies have received more competences, and new 
institutions and programmes have come into existence. In 2007, the 
so-called “Future Group” met for the first time. This group is made up 
of the ministers of Home Affairs of the countries due to hold the EU 
presidency in the next 4 years. The EU commissioner Frattini is also 
part of this group, along with the director of the “Border Protection 
Agency” Frontex. The Future Group calls itself “informal”, but it has 
considerable influence on Home Affairs with respect to the EU Treaty as 
well  the 2007 Lissabon negotiations. The foundation of the Future Group 
coincided with the EU presidency of Germany in 2007. Under the motto 
“Living a secure Europe”, the German Home Affairs Minister successfully 
pushed through a tightening of European internal policies[1].

*Cross-border cooperation*

Until now, cross-border police cooperation has only existed between some 
countries under the Pruem Treaty. This found its expression, for 
example, during the G8 summit 2003 when German police participated in an 
operation against demonstrators in Geneva with 500 police officers and 
five water canons. The Pruem Treaty was a test case and has subsequently 
been integrated in the “legal framework of the EU”. Thus it now applies 
to all EU countries. All police departments will now have access to DNA 
and fingerprint databases as well as vehicle registration data. Access 
to information on “terrorism suspects and travelling violent criminals” 
will be made easier in order to prevent travel or to “quickly recognise 
and detain rioters”. For the European Football Championship in 2008, 2 
000 German police officers have been ordered from Austria and 
Switzerland. EU commissioner Frattini has announced the creation of an 
“EU special force against football violence”. This force is supposed to 
operate for the first time during the European football championship in 
2008. Europol supposedly will have the responsibility of  training these 
“special European forces”.

As an intersection for police cooperation, the competencies of Europol 
in The Hague are not restricted to gathering data and advising police 
forces of EU member states. An EU parliamentary decision in January 2008 
meant that the “European Police Office” became an EU agency for the 
“coordination, organisation and implementation of investigative and 
operational measures”. The realms of responsibility have been extended 
to “organised crime” and “other forms of serious crime”, including 
political actions. In future, access to the “Europol Information System” 
will not require a “liaison officer” anymore.

These “liaison officers” are sent by the police forces of all member 
states to European control and decision-making bodies and are key 
figures in the policing of major events. Officially they have an 
“advisory function”. In practice, they function as important nodes in 
informal police cooperation. They have access to all the databases of 
their home countries and can, for example during summit protests, 
provide information about different political groups. Liaison officers 
coordinate entry restrictions which led to 600 people being denied entry 
into Germany during the G8 2007, because they had been “conspicuous 
during previous G8 summits”.

*Europe – a space of surveillance and control*

The cooperation between police and intelligence services is being 
expanded. In Germany, the Federal Criminal Investigation Office and the 
“Verfassungsschutz” (Office for the Protection of the Constitution) 
recently moved to a “Joint Terrorism Defence Centre”, where they have 
separate offices but meet daily for joint briefings and share the 
canteen space. This cooperation led to the surveillance of the 
anti-g8-movement and the start of investigative operations under the 
premise of terrorism suspicions. German terrorism legislation allows for 
far-reaching interferences in people’s privacy and allowed a record to 
be taken of all mobile phone numbers present at a meeting of the radical 
left dissent!-network against the G8. As people affected by these 
operations have been able to access their files, it has come to light 
that these investigations were carried out by the police but initiated 
by the intelligence services. Following a proposal of the German 
Ministry for Home Affairs, “Joint Terrorism Defence Centres” will be set 
up in all EU member states.

Internet surveillance has increased across Europe. The German Ministry 
for Home Affairs has started a European-wide initiative to fight 
“international terrorism”, entitled “check the web”. On March 8th 2007, 
Europol’s “information portal” went live. German police and secret 
services intend to cooperate with a joint “internet monitoring and 
analysis project” in the future. Such “internet surveillance centres” 
are planned across Europe. The intention is to partially automatise the 
monitoring of websites and subsequent archiving in police databases. New 
software scans the databases to find “entities”, which are conceptual 
analogies or connections between persons and objects (“semantic 
technologies”). The security industry is developing programmes that are 
able to search in different file formats. This way, text, audio, video 
and gps data can be analysed together. Prosecution agencies of various 
countries already use SPSS software that enables the “prediction of 
crimes” as a result of data analysis. The company SPSS describes this 
process as an “evolution in fighting crime”.

More police repression and law enforcement can also be observed in other 
countries of Europe. In Italy, several trials in relation to the G8 
2001, as well as demonstrations against militarism and fascism concluded 
with sentences between 6 and 12 years for the accused. In other 
countries, police laws are being changed in order to give police more 
powers against “security-critical behaviour”. The new Austrian 
legislation on security police makes the racist control of migrants 
easier. The German Federal Police now have more competencies both for 
missions abroad and for domestic affairs, for example against political 
protests. EU member states implement European directives and “harmonise” 
their national legislations, for example with respect to data retention. 
Telecommunication and internet providers now have to store data and hand 
it over to the police on request. This enables the police to reconstruct 
communications and create “relational diagrams”. Protection from 
surveillance is increasingly restricted. The users of encryption 
software in Austria and the UK are now legally obliged to give the 
police their passwords. Home affairs ministers are currently conducting 
a centralisation of all European police databases.


*Institutions and research programs of the European security architecture*

In order to have more control over mass protest, for example during G8 
summits, new institutions and research programmes have been developed. 
European police forces conduct joint trainings and maneuvers to control 
demonstrations. In European police academies operational tactics for 
“crowd management” are designed. The European Police Academy (CEPOL), 
based in Hampshire, UK plays a crucial role: "CEPOL’s mission is to 
bring together senior police officers from police forces across Europe – 
essentially to support the development of a network – and encourage 
cross-border cooperation in the fight against crime, public security and 
law and order, by organising training activities and research findings".
Following the summit protests in Genoa and Gothenburg in 2001, in 2004 
the EU initiated the research programme, "Coordinating National Research 
Programmes on Security during Major Events in Europe" (EU-SEC). EU-SEC 
coordinates police departments of EU member states and Europol and 
publishes a handbook for summit protests. Police are advised to observe 
protest movements, to exchange data, to enforce travel bans, and to 
undertake aggressive media strategies in order to delegitimise 
resistance. In the form of questionnaires, information is gathered about 
European groups and individuals, their action forms, websites, mail 
addresses, international contacts, preferred travel routes, means of 
transport and accommodation.
EU-Sec is coordinated by the "United Nations Interregional Crime and 
Justice Research Institute" (UNICRI). Under the motto “Advancing 
security, serving justice, building peace“, the UN institute has 
organised several working groups on the topic of security. UNICRI 
publishes the “Counter-Terrorism Online Handbook”. Connected to UNICRI 
is the working group “International Permanent Observatory on Security 
during Major Events” (IPO), based in the Italian city Turin. IPO advises 
governments on the appropriate security architecture for major events. 
IPO services are free. At the moment, IPO is putting together a 
“Handbook for G8 states”. Official operational areas since its 
foundation in 2006 have so far been the G8 summits in St Petersburg and 
Heiligendamm, the World Bank/IMF summit in Singapore, and the 
Asia-pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting in Vietnam. Also, the 
Olympic Games 2008 in Beijing and the G8 summit 2008 in Japan are 
coached by IPO. The following is a brief extract from their range of 
support:

* Intelligence: Intelligence Databases; Target & Problem Profiling; 
Receiving & Assessing Intelligence; Web & Telecommunications Matters;
* Contingency Planning and Crisis Management:  Planning for Arrest & 
Court Arrangements, Airport Specific Contingencies; Public Safety 
Contingencies; Casualty Bureau; Complaints Against the Police and 
Security Personnel;
* Traffic Management: Automatic Number Plate Recognition
* Command and Control IT Infrastructure & Networks; CCTV; Command 
Centres; Counter Cyber Attack Tactics
* Plan Development and Project Management: Planning Staff Recruitment & 
HR; Financial Management
* Venue and "non-venue" Security: Fences, Cordons, Barriers & Gates; 
Counter Attack; Venue Search & Seal; Electronic Counter Measures; 
People, Baggage & Vehicle Access; Firearms Support; Public Disorder 
Response; Horses & Dogs; CBRN; Electronic Counter Measures; Traffic 
Management; Crowd Management; Ticketing and Public Safety, and 
strategies related to "soft targets" such as Sponsor/Media Villages and 
Hotels
* Logistical support and Human Resources
* Media & PR Strategy: Press Relations; Media Relations; Community 
Involvement & Consultation; Stakeholder Management
* Dignitary Protection: Close Protection; Red Zone Management; Convoy 
Management; VIP Extraction & Evacuation Planning; Arrivals & Departures 
Protocols and Spouse/Partner Programmes and Protection.
* Air Support: Helicopter Operations; Air Observers and Air Support 
Logistics.
* Logistics and Human Resources: Accommodation and Equipment; Transport 
Timetabling, Rest Accommodation and Feeding

*Border control: the militarisation of migration control*

With the extension of the EU member states and the abolition of border 
controls, the new external EU borders are being technically upgraded. 
They include ightview technology, automatic analysis of video 
surveillance and high frequency cables that can measure and communicate 
the water concentration of nearby bodies. New joint headquarters have 
come into existence. Through the extension of the Schengen Information 
System II (SIS II), more data is available to police forces. 
Fingerprints and biometrical data of migrants are to be stored in the 
Visa Information System (VIS). Home affairs ministers complain about the 
insufficient police control of migrants and have demanded the use of 
RFID chips (chips with radio waves) in passports. These chips could, for 
example, acoustically identify the bearers of an expired visa, without 
this person actually having to show his/her passport.

With the creation of the “Border Control Agency Frontex” in Warsaw, 
EU-wide “migration control” now has another pillar.The General Director, 
Ilkha Laitinen, a Finnish border officer, summarises the “Integrated 
Border Management” of Frontex in the following way, “All those who don’t 
deserve to be and whom one does not want to have on one’s territory, 
have to be stopped.” In a “risk analysis center” prognoses of  waves of 
migration are undertaken, information is passed to the relevant border 
police departments and concrete measures are “recommended”. Frontex has 
a “central technical toolbox” for member states’ control and 
surveillance of external borders. Frontex conducts operations together 
with national police forces (“Frontex Joint Support Teams”). Although 
Frontex has no forces of its own to fight migration, there has been an 
extensive increase in the arsenal of border forces of member states. The 
Italian Carabinieri for instance have new boats, helicopters and 
surveillance technology. According to its own publications, 115 boats, 
27 helicopters, and 21 aeroplanes are documented in the central register 
of Frontex. Besides trainings, Frontex also undertakes research 
programs. For example, they research and recommend the use of 
“micro-helicopters” for border observation.
Director Laitinen has expressed his wish for Frontex to have more of its 
own resources and operative forces in the future. The European 
Commission will evaluate Frontex in 2008 and will establish what the 
future of this agency should look like. The Commission will be deciding 
on a “European Border Control System”.

*Police and combatting counter-insurgency abroad*

The Lissabon Treaty also addresses “reforms” in the field of military 
affairs. The “European Security and Defense Policy” asks for a “gradual 
improvement of military capacities”. The Lissabon Treaty also plans 
"reforms" within the field of military politics. The aim os for the EU 
to have armed units at its disposal by 2010. In January 2007 the first 
EU Battlegroup was declared fully operational; in 2006 such a unit was 
already considerably involved in the EU military deployment in Congo.
There are also means for intervention in "third states" that are much 
less visible: The "European Gendarmerie Froces" (EGF). The EGF is a 
paramilitary police unit founded and developed at the G8 summits in 2002 
and 2004. It should be able to mobilise 3 000 police officers within 4 
weeks. Forces are so far provided by the Netherlands, France, Spain, 
Italy and Portugal. The EGF is supposed to take over police control 
after military deployments in crisis areas, as well as ensure "public 
order" during the "occurrence of public unrests".
The non-domestic deployment of police forces is considered a "civilian 
instrument". So far, maintaining "public order" in "third states" has 
been the task of the military, although it always has cooperated with 
police units. For example in Bosnia, members of the German Army were 
trained by Italian Carabinieri. The official tasks of the EGF include 
"the entire spectrum of police deployments, civilian authority and 
military command, control of local police authorities, criminal 
investigation activities, activities for the provision of secret 
intelligence, property protection" etc. The statute of the EGF does not 
exclude a deployment within the EU. The headquarters of the EGF are 
located in the Italian city of Vicenza at a Carabinieri base. Likewise, 
in Vicenza the EGF have their own academy (COESPU) where their own 
forces as well as units of other countries are trained. The academy is 
financed by the G8 states. Also, senior police officers of Pakistan and 
Kenya have undergone COEPSU training in "riot control", which cost 
hundreds of demonstrators their life in December 2007.

*The significance for radical movements*

“The distinction between international law in times of peace and in 
times of war is no longer appropriate in the face of new threats”, 
Schäuble, the German Minister of Home Affairs has stated. The German 
chancellor and the head of the Federal Criminal Investigation police 
have further conceded that, “the separation between internal and 
external  security is obsolete”.
What do these developments mean for the political practice of radical 
movements in general and for the alterglobalisation movement 
specifically, except “even more repression”? A debate about repression 
should be an integral part of the practice of radical movements. It is 
clear that the margins for left interventions have not exactly increased 
in light of and after 9/11. Nonetheless, we think that it is not only 
the speed and the degree of repressive measures that has changed. The 
entire social matrix within which radical left politics is situated is 
shifting. The quality of surveillance and social control has taken on 
another form. Apart from technological developments, above all this has 
to do with the transnational coordination of control agencies and the 
“interdependency of internal and external security”. “War” and 
“repression” are concepts of yesterday, today everything is about 
“security.”
At the same time, we see a concrete opportunity in using this continued 
narrowing of the freedom of movement as a chance to build new alliances 
that will bring about broad social debates and unexpected interventions. 
A conjunction of classical antimilitarism, antirepression, and migration 
politics is a clear option. The degree to which these new measures and 
institutions touch upon the daily life of every European should offer 
sufficient starting points for a practice of proactive disobedience 
against this evolving European Security Architecture.

In our view, the G8 summit in 2009 offers a number of interesting 
connections.

*Against the European Security Architecture*

The G8 in Italy provides an opportunity to raise public awareness about 
and criticise the international police coordination against summit 
protests. Some of the measures and institutions have been installed 
under the direction of Frattini, the current EU Commissioner for 
Justice, Freedom and Security. The EU-SEC programme against mass 
political protests was initiated after the G8 in Genoa. The UN 
initiative "International Permanent Observatory on Security during Major 
Events" is being coordinated from Turin. We can assume that after the 
experiences of the G8 2001, the G8 2009 will be a matter of prestige for 
all of these agencies. Their preparations for the G8 2009 have probably 
already begun.

A decision by Italian social movements to focus on militarism as a 
prominent mobilisation issue against the G8 2009 could combine the 
critique of militarised foreign politics with resistance to the new 
coordinates of European domestic politics. Resistance against the 
“policialisation of internal and external security” could connect with 
the movement against the NATO basement Dal Molin in the Italian city 
Vicenza. A protest movement that has mobilised for several major 
demonstrations against the extension of the basement has been active 
there for several years. As the seat of the European Gendarmery Forces, 
Vicenza could become the symbol of resistance to the paramilitary 
organisation of European police forces.
Moreover, after the Kosovan declaration of independence, “Eulex”, the 
biggest EU police mission with 2 000 officers, mainly from Germany and 
Italy, was established. 700 of them are designated for deployment during 
demonstrations. On the Italian side, this task will probably be taken 
over by the Carabinieri units of the EGF. “Eulex” supports the NATO 
KFOPR troops in Kosovo in maintaining “public order”, which thus 
combines a military with a “civil” intervention.

Antimilitarist movements have an ambitious agenda for the next one and a 
half years. An extract:
* in March 2008 there will be an action at the NATO headquarters in 
Bruxelles (“bombspotting”)
* In April 2008 there will be protests against the NATO summit in Bucharest
* In May 2008 the “parliamentary assembly of the NATO” (“little sister 
of NATO”) intends to hold its spring conference in Berlin
* On the 5th of July 2008 there is an International Day of Action in the 
context of the G8 protests in Japan, prepared by Japanese antimilitarist 
groups
* In July 2008 there will be a resistance camp in Germany against the 
construction of a training field for air bombing (“Bombodrom”)
* In 2009 the NATO will celebrate its 60th birthday in France.

The mobilisation against the G8 2009 could prolong these protests and 
connect them to the Italian antimilitarist movement.

The mobilisation to Italy will have to find a way of dealing with the 
memories of the days and nights in Genoa. It is to be expected that a 
number of activists will not partcipate in the G8 protests in Italy 
because of their experiences with Italian police and the Carabinieri (or 
because of what they heard about them from friends). Many are 
traumatised since then; perhaps one could even generalise this for the 
movements of the “summer of resistance” in Gothenburg and Genoa 2001. 
With such traumatisation, however, police repression would have reached 
one of its goal: the prevention of protest. One of the possible 
strategies for overcoming the trauma is to remember and re-tell the 
story. A mobilisation against militarised European external and internal 
politics could link the role of the paramilitary Carabinieri in Genoa 
with their current integration into the “European Security Architecture” 
(Frontex, EGF). It is quite likely that by 2009 not all the main trials 
of the G8 summit protests in Genoa will be concluded. Prosecuted 
activists are in  the process of appealing. Supposedly, the publicity 
work for these trials will be integrated in the mobilisation for 2009.

In September 2008, the European Social Forum (ESF) will take place in 
Malmoe, Sweden. A panel on the topic of repression is planned. We 
propose to use ESF and the planned parallel autonomous forum, as one of 
the moments for the European coordination between groups working on 
police issues, antirepression initiatives, and supportive lawyers/legal 
activists. Internal policy developments concerning surveillance and 
control in Europe could be brought together there. We would be 
interested in finding out where resistance to the “European Security 
Architecture” already exists. How are demands formulated and publicly 
articulated in other countries? How do activists relate to discourses on 
fundamental rights and civil liberties? Connecting to these practices we 
could start looking for common perspectives. Perhaps such a meeting 
could spur a European networking process for antirepression work during 
the G8 in Italy.

This text should be understood as a first outline of a contribution to 
the international summit protest 2009 in Italy. For sure it would be 
equally feasible not to put resistance to the European Security 
Architecture at the centre of the mobilisation but  rather migration, 
precarity or a radical anticapitalist climate politics. We are not aware 
of any existing concrete proposals for the G8 2009 moblisation outside 
of Italy. We look forward to more English reports, position papers and 
discussions. We can be reached under euro-police [at] so36.net.

/Activists from Gipfelsoli | Prozessbeobachtungsgruppe Rostock | MediaG8way/

[1] “Living Europe Safely” on:
http://euro-police.noblogs.org/gallery/3874/Europa_sicher_leben.pdf