Maintaining Security within Borders: Towards a Permanent State of Emergency in the EU? CEPS Policy Briefs No. 41, October 2003

This report carries out an assessment of the European measures and practices implemented within the scope of the Schengen borders regime after the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001 in the United States. In particular we look at: the re-introduction of border checks on the basis of Art. 2.2 of the Schengen Convention, along with the plan to put protestors under surveillance and deny entry to suspected troublemakers; the policies on intrusive surveillance through the use of biometric technologies and databases, as well as the controversial EU/US bilateral relations on the transfer of Passenger Name Record information (PNR). We also evaluate to what extent security has taken precedence in the European agenda and how it undermines, among others, the fundamental right of free movement of persons within the EU (which is enshrined in the EC Treaty), and leads to a quasi-permanent ‘state of exception’ or ‘emergency’ within the European borders. The human rights considerations as well as the main human targets of these security policies also need special scrutiny