Intensification, extension, constitution
by Heiner Busch
In 2004, the EU will have grown to include 10 more states. In order to join, the candidates had to integrate the Schengen acquis and close down their eastern borders. The EU did not use its chance to revise its Justice and Home Affairs policies. The new charter also will not change the EU’s current policy direction. Although the European Parliament will gain more powers, they will only serve to accelerate already final decisions, such as the decisions on the remits of Europol.

EU border police
by Mark Holzberger
The creation of a common border police will take place step by step. The EU Council’s common strategy on border controls foresees the creation of new working groups, common border police actions as well as new operational border control police units.

Poland: The new border regime at the Bug
by Helmut Dietrich
Control towers and helicopters, optical and electronic high technologies – with the PHARE project, the EU finances the design of Poland’s external borders on the east. The future border regime is a social technological attack on the informal crossborder economy.

New borders in the Carpathian Mountains
by Elisabeth Schroedter
Within the next 17 months, the EU’s external border will run through the Carpathian mountains. The Ukraine will become the outpost of fortress Europe. Hungary is developing as the model pupil of EU border control. Romania is demilitarising its border control.

One year „fight against terrorism“ in the EU
by Mark Holzberger and Heiner Busch
The „fight against terrorism“ has fuelled the EU’s Justice and Home Affairs politics. The terrorism roadmap altogether contains 64 projects with farreaching amendments of an institutional as well as legal nature.

Amendment of the Europol Convention
by Ben Hayes
The Europol convention was signed in 1996 and came into force at the end of 1999. The Danish EU presidency has now proposed a general overhaul of the Convention: it wants to extend the bureaux’s scope, anchor its operational remits in law and weaken data protection even further. Meanwhile, the Europol working group will discuss if the convention will be replaced by a mere Council Decision, thereby denying parliamentary scrutiny.

EU-US cooperation after September 11
by Ben Hayes
After 11.9.2001, the „security cooperation“ between the US and the EU has been intensified considerably. The plans and agreements significantly extend the fight against terrorism. They concern mutual legal assistance (from raids to the creation of common investigation teams), a cooperation agreement with Europol (liaison officers, data transfer…) as well as the exchange of data in relation to immigration and border control. The plans undermine the basic legal standards which prevail within the EU.

Football fans trapped
by Michael Gabriel
International football matches are not only sportive but also policing highlights. This was particularly true for the European Championship in 2000 organised by Belgium and the Netherlands. Travel bans on leaving or entering the country, preventative arrests and a constant security campaign in the media created miserable times for the fans who travelled to the grounds. Under these circumstances, the pedagogic work of projects organised by fans becomes a mere alibi.

The private security industry in Germany
by Benno Kirsch
The private security industry has seen an unprecedented growth over the last 15 years. The sector is still dominated by small and medium-sized companies, but is currently experiencing a process of concentration and internationalisation. The wages are low, many employees have insecure and shortterm contracts. Private security firms guard everything that can possibly be guarded.

Coalition agreements: fight against terrorism as leitmotiv
by Petra Pau and Katina Schubert
‚Business as usual‘ for the home office politics after the elections in September: The SPD interior minister wants more „security“, the Green party is trying to stall and without much success is trying to save liberalism from him. It is a failed endeavour to search for emancipatory elements in the coalition agreement.