'Big brother' fears over border controls

Sweeping plans for electronic monitoring of all visitors crossing European Union borders could be a “Big Brother” move too far, the European Commission was warned this afternoon.

Euro-MPs said the prospect of biometric checks, satellite surveillance of all EU territory, and possibly an EU force of frontier guards could breach privacy laws.

However, EU Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini insisted his proposals to reinforce Europe’s existing border checks were vital to counter fears about security.

The creation of “electronic travel authorisation” for everyone moving around the EU would streamline free movement for bone fide citizens, step up protection for victims of trafficking in human beings and crack down on illegal immigration, he said.

The move, which require approval from EU governments and the European Parliament, follows last December’s extension of the EU’s internal passport-free “Schengen” area to nine of the newer member states in central Europe.

That means the EU now has a huge external border to the east – a border which now runs from Slovenia and Hungary to Estonia, abutting Belarus, Ukraine, Romania and Croatia.

Mr Frattini said his new “border management package” to cope with immigration and security would now be the subject of intense talks with EU governments and MEPs before any legislative plans would be produced.

In any case they would not automatically apply in the UK or Ireland, which have opted out of the Schengen accord, and maintain their own border and security checks.

However the proposals would not affect British citizens travelling to the rest of the EU, a government spokesman in Brussels said.

However, Mr Frattini invited both countries to consider opting in to the pooling of beefed up security measures – and a UK government official said some of the ideas could only improve pan-European data on illegal immigrants, suspected terrorists, and traffickers.

The Commissioner said the EU had to use the most advanced technology, particularly to tackle the growing problem of “overstayers” – immigrants remaining in the EU after expiry of visas and to intercept terrorists.

The measures involve the creation of an electronic register of the entry and exit of third country nationals and the development of European border surveillance system to combat illegal border crossings.

Automatic electronic “entry-exit” checking systems are particularly valuable to check for those flying into the EU and landing at in any of the 24 EU countries in the Schengen system.

The system would be so sophisticated that an alarm set off my traveller information monitored electronically at one border entry point would trigger simultaneous alarms in every other EU country involved in the system.

Mr Frattini pointed out that Heathrow was already one of four European countries experimenting with an “electronic travel authorisation” system

“I have registered my iris at Heathrow and it is important to make the system being used in Heathrow interoperable with the system in Frankfurt and Amsterdam and Paris. So this proposal is open to interconnection.”

He went on: “It is up to the UK and Irish governments to decide whether to join a system of entry and exit registers, which are a very useful instrument to prevent over-stayers.

“ The problem of overstayers is a common issue, for the UK and Ireland as well as for the Netherlands or Belgium.”

However, the leader of the Liberal Democrats in the European Parliament Graham Watson, said he feared a “Big Brother mentality” was taking over Europe: “We demand to know what all the biometrics proposals the Commission has been rolling out in piecemeal fashion will amount to, so we can ensure that the total legislative outcome does not exceed the sum of its parts.

“Amassing information on travellers is a must for efficient border controls. However we need tight checks on who can access this data to guarantee it will not be used for other purposes.”

Mr Watson added: “The careless loss of personal data by certain national governments in recent months shows how easy it is to misuse”.

UK Independence Party MEP Gerard Batten said that using a European satellite surveillance system was like “using a haystack to find a needle”.

He went on: “The level of monitoring required to spot potential terrorist will be so extensive and so all encompassing that it will be practically worthless. All this will do will be to massively increase surveillance on normal citizens.”

A Commission report says border controls to ease legal migration must go hand in hand with tougher policies against illegal immigration, in particular tackling illegal employment in the EU and “by jointly controlling and managing EU external borders efficiently, in full respect of human rights whilst protecting those seeking asylum or international protection.”