Secret EU security draft risks uproar with call to pool policing and give US personal data

by Ian Traynor in Brussels
The Guardian,
Thursday August 7 2008

Closer links needed to beat terrorism and crime

Blueprint wants new force to patrol world flashpoints

Audio link (interview by Ian Traynor)

Europe should consider sharing vast amounts of intelligence and information on its citizens with the US to establish a “Euro-Atlantic area of cooperation” to combat terrorism, according to a high-level confidential report on future security.

The 27 members of the EU should also pool intelligence on terrorism, develop joint video-surveillance and unmanned drone aircraft, start networks of anti-terrorism centres, and boost the role and powers of an intelligence-coordinating body in Brussels, said senior officials.

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Last month the American Civil Liberties Union wrote to MEPs pressing Brussels to reject US pressure because the US is “a country that, in privacy terms, is all but lawless … US privacy laws are weak. They offer little protection to citizens and virtually none to non-citizens.”

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