Closing Europe’s Borders Becomes Big Business‏

http://www.ipsnews.net/2013/01/closing-europes-borders-becomes-big-business/

Closing Europe’s Borders Becomes Big Business
By Apostolis Fotiadis and Claudia Ciobanu

This is the first of a two-part report on extraordinary measures the EU
is taking to keep unwanted migrants out of the EU.


A detention camp at Evros in Greece. The placard an inmate holds up says
‘Guantanamo’. Credit: Nikos Pilos/IPS.

ATHENS/WARSAW, Jan 9 2013 (IPS) - The European Union is implementing a
new border management system with tougher migration control the core
aim. Major security and weapons companies are already reaping the benefits.

Frontex, the EU border agency, has financed major weapons and security
equipment producers to present their equipment in demonstrations.
European national border guards have participated in these
demonstrations as potential customers, IPS learns.

Frontex confirmed to IPS that the agency has been paying weapons and
security equipment manufacturers to participate in demonstrations of
equipment which national agencies attended as potential customers.

“In the case of companies Lockheed Martin, FAST Protect AG, L-3
Communications, FLIR Systems, SCOTTY Group Austria, Diamond Airborne
Sensing and Inmarsat, it (the reimbursement) was 30,000 euros,” the
agency told IPS in an emailed response.

The companies participated in demonstration of Remotely Piloted Aircraft
(Drones) in Aktio in Greece in October 2011. Thirteen companies and
consortiums (Israel Aerospace Industries, Lockheed Martin, FAST Protect
AG, L-3 Communications, FLIR Systems, SCOTTY Group Austria, Diamond
Airborne Sensing, Inmarsat, Thales, AeroVision, AeroVironment, Altus,
BlueBird) demonstrated technological solutions for maritime surveillance.

“The payments made to the companies to cover the costs incurred by them
to participate in the demonstration in Aktio varied from 10,000 euros to
198,000 euros,” said Frontex.

U.S.-based Lockheed Martin, French Thales and Israeli IAI are among the
biggest weapons and security equipment producers in the world.

The demonstrations are part of the preparation for the launch of
EUROSUR, the European External Border Surveillance System meant to
enhance cooperation between border control agencies of EU member states
and to promote surveillance of EU’s external borders by Frontex, with a
particular focus on the Mediterranean and North Africa, in view of
controlling migration to Europe.

Surveillance plans envisage the possibility of using drones to spot
migrant boats trying to cross the Mediterranean.

EUROSUR is one of the two main elements of Europe’s new border
management regime along with ‘Smart Borders’ which will put in place an
‘Entry-Exit System’ (EES) to identify visa overstayers, and establish a
Registered Traveller Programme (RTP) to enable pre-vetted individuals to
cross borders faster. The system would rely heavily on use of biometrics
and on the collection of a huge database of passenger personal information.

A legislative package setting up EUROSUR was approved in mid-November
this year by the European Parliament’s civil liberties committee and is
expected to receive a final go-ahead soon from the entire Parliament and
by the European Council, the EU’s executive. Meanwhile, preparations for
EUROSUR are advancing away from public scrutiny.

The demonstrations of market ready equipment are a significant measure
in the steady construction of a new EU border management system. Through
2014-2020 member states will be encouraged to buy such equipment with
support from the EU budget.

The Commission estimates that the creation of EUROSUR could cost up to
338 million euros. ‘Borderline’, a study of the EU’s new border
surveillance and control system published by the Heinrich Boll
Foundation, claims the costs could “easily” end up as high as 874
million euros. The Commission refutes the higher estimates.

The ‘Smart Gates’ initiative is estimated by the Commission to cost 400
million euros for setting up plus an additional 190 million euros
annually in operating costs.

According to the Borderline study, “despite the absence of any draft
legislation, or even an agreement in principle on introducing smart
borders in the EU, the Commission has already allocated 1.1 billion
euros to the development of an EES (EU Entry Exit System) and RTP (EU
Registered Traveller Programme) from the proposed EU Internal Security
Fund (2014-2020).”

The Internal Security Fund is meant to be a new component of the future
EU budget (2014-2020), replacing the existing External Border Fund.
According to a Commission proposal, the Internal Fund would be 4.648
billion euros annually, and among its strategic priorities will be “to
finance the setting up of the EES and the RTP as well as the
introduction and operation of the EUROSUR, notably through “the purchase
of equipment, infrastructure and systems in member states.”

It would also “boost the operational potential of the Frontex Agency by
inviting member states to earmark additional resources under their
programmes for specialised equipment which can be put at the disposal of
the Agency for its joint operations.”

In early December, the European Parliament gave a green light to the
Internal Security Fund. Now only Council approval is needed for it to
become operational – member states are expected to make a final decision
on the next EU Budget in February 2013.

“The European border security policy is going in the wrong direction,”
Green euro-parliamentarian Ska Keller told IPS. “Against the background
of pervasive budget cuts and austerity measures, it is unbelievable that
the EU is spending millions of euros for ‘smart gates’, UAVs, and other
surveillance technologies.

“And it is even more shameful that those who profit most from EUROSUR
and ‘smart borders’ are the big European defence contractors.”