Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-04-08-Speech-1-112"
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"en.20020408.8.1-112"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, the ARGO programme is supposed to ensure that the EU's external borders continue to be secure against intruders. The model for this fortification of the EU's borders is Germany's system of bulkheads on its border with Poland. This strategy comprises well-trained police officers, high-tech apparatus, the efficient cooperation of the various authorities, and, to an increasing extent, the involvement of private security companies and informers among the population. I know you will think that crazy, but I will tell you what I think of it in a moment.
The ARGO programme is meant to ensure the establishment of the same level of fortification on the EU's new eastern border prior to removal of controls on the newly-created internal borders in accordance with the Schengen Agreement. It is no secret that apologists for a European policy of repression see this as the nucleus of a European border police force.
The action programme aims at the creation of effective bulwarks against the migration into the EU of unwanted refugees, who can scarcely find a way in without the help of smugglers. Greater sealing-off will – as is intended – lead to higher prices being charged in the market for this sort of assistance and make it more hazardous. All the stances taken up in favour of refugees but against people-traffickers are, at best hypocritical and at worst help to close off borders with fatal results. The planned amendments to the Convention implementing the Schengen Agreement are also in line with the ARGO programme's objectives. The re-armament of the police on the external borders is accompanied by ever more competences for the police in the interior.
Where, as in this case, it is cooperation by the repressive authorities that is at issue, it is interesting that the role played by borders is relegated to the background. In principle, the planned amendment of the Schengen Agreement envisages nothing other than to hand over more powers to foreign police officers in cases involving cross-border surveillance. In future, it will not only be suspects that will be under observation, but also their friends. The initiative is therefore pursuing the European government's objective of making a priority of the implementation of repressive security measures rather than the guaranteeing and securing of human rights and freedoms. Mr von Boetticher and the Commission thus furnish a further example of the folly of believing that security can be created by more repressive police action.
Both initiatives thus contribute to a development that directly leads from a neoliberal state characterised by competition to a police state bearing the stamp of authoritarianism and an obsession with security. They represent a further step on that road – the road that leads towards a European panopticon."@en1
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