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A new secret report, made available by Statewatch, drafted by the "Future Group" of Interior and Justice Ministers from six EU member states (Germany, France, Sweden, Portugal, Slovenia, and Czech Republic) suggests a series of proposals to boost EU integration in policing and intelligence-gathering, including the creation an EU-US Area of cooperation for "freedom, security and justice."

The group's controversial proposals are certain to trigger major disputes, proposing that the EU members states should pool information in a central intelligence unit, creating a network of "anti-terrorist centres", standardising police surveillance techniques and extending the sharing of

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UK Government fights EU proposals to restrict the way it uses passenger name record (PNR) information to monitor immigration, claiming that the data it collects is crucial to control cross-border movements.

With the EU planning to make all European states share PNR data, UK government argues there is a "real risk" the action "would degrade e-Borders by prohibiting the use of PNR data for combating immigration offences". A spokeswoman for the Home Office stated: "The collection of passenger name records is a vital tool in Britain's fight against organised crime, terrorism and immigration offenders."

UK wants to go further than EU and share data from internal EU flights, sea

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On 31 May 2008, privacy activists organized new rallies in more than 30 cities across Germany.

Following the November 2007 protests under the motto "Freedom not Fear"("Freiheit statt Angst"), thousands of citizens participated in this year street actions.

Numerous demonstrations, rallies, information events, as well as workshops and art performances sent clear signals to protect constitutional rights and limit the rampant proliferation of surveillance.

The rallies had the goal of demonstrating to the ruling grand coalition, a decisive NO of citizens to the blanket collection and storage of data, as well as to the surveillance of all details of daily life. The activities were

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As stated by the New York Times on 26 June 2008, the United States and the European Union are close to conclude an agreement allowing the exchange of personal data of their citizens, including credit card information, travel history and Internet browsing information in order to be shared with the law enforcement and security agencies.

According to an internal report revealed by the newspaper, the potential agreement that has been negotiated since February 2007 between the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Justice and State departments and their European counterparts will make clear that it is lawful for European governments and companies to transfer personal information to the United

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--- Version corrected on 24.04.2008---

According to a couple of Eurobarometer surveys on data protection, issued by the European Commission on 17 April 2008, EU citizens have little faith in the security of data transmission on the Internet.

Two surveys were conducted by Gallup in January 2008, investigating the perceptions on data protection among EU citizens and data controllers respectively. The surveys involved about 27000 EU citizens and 5000 companies from all 27 member states.

The findings of the surveys show that 82% of European Internet users have little trust in personal data management on the Internet and 64% of EU citizens are concerned about data protection issues feeling that the

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The German Working Group on Data Retention expanded its activities beyond the data retention issues, by publishing two applications to the European Court of Justice by the European Parliament contesting the transfer of PNR data to the US.

The documents explain why the collection of air passenger data in the US as well as a similar proposal by EU commissioner Franco Frattini are incompatible with the air travellers' fundamental rights. First, the blanket collection of all PNR data violates the basic right to privacy and protection of our personal data. The finality of the data retained is not precisely defined; a "blank cheque" is given to the authorities permitting an unforeseeable use of the data for other purposes. Also, sensitive data

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Czech Republic Interior Minister Ivan Langer and U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff signed on 26 February 2008 in Washington D.C. the Memorandum of Understanding which is the first step in introducing new electronic visa programme for all EU countries.

In this Memorandum Czech authorities agreed to "passenger and other information sharing, screening information concerning known or suspected terrorists, information to combat terrorism and serious crime, and information on migration matters" with the US authorities and also promised to "allow for the further dissemination of transferred information within the United States Government". Czech Ministry of Interior agreed "to provide

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According to a document revealed by Statewatch, the EU and US are negotiating the data protection principles for which common language has been developed. The Group has as purpose to draft a proposal that should deal with the personal data protection in any future EU-US agreements that will deal with this topic.

In November 2007 Paul Rosenzweig, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy at the US DHS said, on the EU requirement, that data could only be passed to third states whose laws passed the "adequacy" test guaranteeing equivalent rights:

"The EU should reconsider its decision to apply notions of adequacy to the critical area of law enforcement and public safety. Otherwise the EU runs

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A set of new measures including biometric data from non-EU travellers are being proposed these days by the European Commission (EC). The proposals, drafted by Franco Frattini, the European Commissioner for Justice, Freedom and Security, are being put forward by the EC, arguing that the cross-border policy has to be revised to face the new challenges related to terrorism, organised crime and illegal migration.

The package proposes the creation of an entry/exit register of non-European visitors to the EU bloc that will record the dates of entry and exit of each non-EU individual admitted to the Schengen visa-free area using biometric identifiers. In cases when a person's visa has expired, an alert can be

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The Lisbon Treaty was signed in December 2007. Notwithstanding the many critics raised by this Treaty, the text, when ratified by all member States, will bring two major improvements to the EU and its citizens. First, the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union will become part of the Community acquis, including its articles 7 (Respect for private and family life) and 8 (Protection of personal data). Secondly, the Treaty will allow the accession of the EU to the European Convention on Human Rights and, hence, will give EU citizens the possibility of being protected against abuses of their human rights by EU institutions. This improvement would be much welcome, especially - though not exclusively - considering the