Statewatch News Online, 30 January 2017

Statewatch News Online, 30 January 2017 (02/17)Home page: http://www.statewatch.org/ e-mail: office@statewatch.org

ANALYSES, BRIEFING & VIEWPOINT:
http://www.statewatch.org/analyses.htm
1. Analysis: EU: Eighth report on relocation and resettlement: Commission welcomes increase in relocations and ignores harmful systematic effects 

NEWS
http://www.statewatch.org/news/newsfull.htm
1    USA: Executive Order: Executive Order: Border Security and Immigration Enforcement  
2.   EU: PNR: Belgium, France, Netherlands to introduce rail ID checks
3.   EU: Re-Build Refuge Europe, a new project to counteract the discourses of crisis
4.   EU-GREECE: "Solidarity" on refugees: reports lay bare Greek government frustration 
5.   EU: EU and Member States prefer to shut the door and return refugees than relocate them
6.   EU-AFRICA: Will the EU's anti-migrant smuggling efforts in Niger backfire?
7.   EU: Hotspots and EU Agencies: Towards an integrated European administration? 
8.   UK: Spycop’s alias confirmed by public inquiry 9.   UK: LONDON, 9 February 2017: Final conference of the BYTE project on big data
10. TURKEY-GREECE-EU: Threatened end refugee agreement
11. Italy: A refugee has drowned while tourists laughed and told him to ‘go back home’ [VIDEO] 
12. Increased surveillance in the Med and policing Libya's southern border
13. Hungary: You don’t know which direction this whole political system will go
14. UK: SCOTLAND: Women's statement: Full investigation needed on undercover policing
15. GREECE: How One Man Made Greece a More Welcoming Place
16. FRANCE: Far-right: the Front National: brief history and overview of electoral results
17. EU-Turkey deal: Ombudsman says that Commission must do more to assess human rights impact
18. EU: Europol wants data retention to ease identification of individual internet users
19. Italy: New CIEs and the repatriation of foreigners: ASGI statement on the Chief of Police's circular
20. EU: "The winter of our shame" refugees and migrants who are facing adverse weather 
21. Surveillance: Spycops Activists Demand Meeting with Scottish Government 
22. European: Migration control in Libya
23. EU-TURKEY: UNHCR cannot monitor the rights of people returned under EU-Turkey deal
24. EU: Amnesty: major new report denounces Europe's "ever-expanding national security state"
25. SPAIN-MOROCCO: Court orders re-opening  'El Tarajal' case into deaths in waters around Ceuta
26. EU-AFRICA: Report demonstrates priority given by EU to migration control in the Sahel
27. Italy: Large-scale expansion of detention centres for tougher migration control
28. EU: Data retention and the law: Tele2 Sverige AB and Watson et al 29.  SPAIN: Coalition of 85 Spanish NGOs demand clarification of potential push backs
30 EU: e-Privacy Regulation: Good intentions but a lot of work to do 

DOCUMENTION
1.   EU: Revision of Firearms Directive nearing completion
2.   EU-USA: European Commission: EU-US TFTP and PNR Agreements
3.   EU: Council of the European Union: Qualifications Directive
4.   EU: Council of the European Union: EPPO, "Blue Card" (Legal migration) & Humanitarian visas
5.   European Parliament Study: Brexit and the EU: General institutional and legal considerations
6.   EU-USA:  Commission: Implementation of the EU-US TFTP and PNR Agreements
7.   EU: e-Privacy Regulation: Good intentions but a lot of work to do
8.   UK-EU: BREXIT: Article 50 Bill published and Explanatory Memorandum 
9.   EU: High-Level Expert Group on Information Systems and Interoperability report
10. EU-AFRICA: Annual Report on the Sahel Regional Action Plan
11. United Nations Special Rapporteur: On the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly
12. EU: Commission: Back to Schengen: in another three months
13.  Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA):Impact of for a revised Eurodac Regulation
14. Council of Europe: Big Data: we need to protect the persons behind the data 

Observatory on the refugee crisis in the Med and inside the EU: Updated daily:
http://www.statewatch.org/eu-med-crisis.htm

ANALYSES, BRIEFING & VIEWPOINT:
http://www.statewatch.org/analyses.htm
1. Statewatch Analysis: Eighth report on relocation and resettlement: Commission welcomes increase in relocations and ignores harmful systematic effects (pdf) by Yasha Maccanico:

In the eighth report on relocation and resettlement published on 8 December 2016, the Commission continued to welcome developments which are degrading Europe to ensure that the “emergency” its policies and the dysfunctional Schengen/Dublin system have predictably caused persists, particularly in frontline Mediterranean states (Greece and Italy). 

Over a year after the start of implementation of the EU Agenda on Migration, the EU Action Plan on Migration and in particular the roll-out of the hotspot approach in Italy and Greece, mounting evidence shows that far from assisting frontline states, they are being punished for shortcomings in implementing a dysfunctional model designed to penalise them.

NEWS
1. USA: Executive Order: Executive Order: Border Security and Immigration Enforcement Improvements (link):

See: Trump immigrant curbs cause chaos, panic, anger worldwide (Reuters, link):

"President Donald Trump's sweeping ban on people seeking refuge in the United States and visitors from seven Muslim-majority countries caused confusion and panic among travelers on Saturday, with some turned back from U.S.-bound flights.

Immigration lawyers in New York sued to block the order, saying numerous people have already been unlawfully detained.

The new Republican president on Friday put a four-month hold on allowing refugees into the United States and temporarily barred travelers from Syria and six other Muslim-majority countries. He said the moves would protect Americans from terrorism, in a swift and stern delivery on a campaign promise.

The bans affects travelers with passports from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. "
2. EU: PNR: Belgium, France, Netherlands to introduce rail ID checks (AP, link):

"Belgium has sealed an agreement with France and the Netherlands to draw up passenger lists and introduce passport checks on Thalys and Eurostar international rail services.

Interior Minister Jan Jambon told VRT broadcaster Friday that the move will tighten security on the high-speed trains and help track criminals who might be using them.

"The aim is to have the system operational by the end of the year," Jambon said.

He noted that Germany has decided not to take part. Berlin attacker Anis Amri drove a truck into a central Berlin market on Dec. 19, killing 12 people. He died in a shootout with Italian police four days later after transiting to Italy through the Netherlands, Belgium and France.

"If the system works they can join in," Jambon said, noting that "there is an election coming up in Germany. Maybe that has something to do with (their decision).""

See an earlier article in response to the proposals: Passenger name regulation could destroy cross-border rail (Railway Gazette, link)

3. EU: Re-Build Refuge Europe, a new project to counteract the discourses of crisis (European Alternatives, link):

"European Alternatives leads Re-Build Refuge Europe, a project that brings together partners from the UK, Sweden, Spain, Finland and Germany, and Greece. It aims to counteract the dominant discourses of ‘crisis’ and ‘threat’ by using art, culture and innovative practices allowing European citizens and refugees to learn from each other as equals. Activities of the project include storytelling, training and workshops for participants and the digital arts. The final results of the project will be exhibited and performed during the Athens Biennale 2017 and TRANSEUROPA Festival 2017 in Madrid."

4. EU-GREECE: "Solidarity" on refugees: official reports lay bare Greek government frustration with other EU Member States
Statewatch is today publishing two official reports that set out how the Greek government has sought to comply with other EU Member States' demands to control its borders and to prevent refugees leaving the country. Both reports show significant frustration with the failure of other Member States to meet their obligations to relocate refugees and to provide the necessary human and material resources to assist the Greek authorities.

The reports: Follow-up report on the implementation of the Action Plan on addressing the "serious" deficiencies in the field of management of the external borders by Greece (23 September 2016, pdf) and: 2nd Follow-up report (16 November 2016, pdf)

5. EU: Rapid introduction of new Frontex powers: EU and Member States prefer to shut the door and return refugees than relocate them
In 13 months (the year 2016 plus January 2017) EU Member States have "returned" 11,121 refugees but only relocated within the EU 8,123 refugees entering through Greece and Italy (the two main countries of entry) since September 2015.

6. EU-AFRICA: Will the EU's anti-migrant smuggling efforts in Niger backfire?
"In the case of northern Niger, however, haphazardly designed anti-smuggling efforts come with an even greater danger: destabilizing one of the few pockets of stability in a volatile region. Aside from the promise of money from Europe, the reality is that the Nigerien government has few incentives to crack down on migrant smuggling, in part because doing so is fraught with political and security risks.

In northern Niger, migrant smuggling is part of a broader political economy that is thoroughly enmeshed within formal and informal political and security structures. In fact, Niger’s anti-corruption agency found that state security forces in the region would not be able to function if they did not take bribes paid by smugglers, and would otherwise be unable to purchase basic necessities such as fuel, spare parts for vehicles and food.

Government officials in Agadez have also conceded that everyone from drivers, fixers, landlords, shop owners, currency dealers and even local law enforcement are profiting from the economic boom. “Many are eating off these migrants,” Ahmed Koussa, an assistant to the mayor of Agadez, told the New York Times. Abdourahamane Moussa, deputy-secretary general for the regional government in Agadez, struck a similar tone speaking to the Wall Street Journal. “Migrants are buying things, consuming our goods, animating our economy,” he said. “People here are benefitting. … How can we stop it?”
See: The E.U.’s Hollow Success Over Migrant Smuggling in Niger (Refugees Deeply, link)

7. EU: Hotspots and EU Agencies: Towards an integrated European administration? (EU Migration Law, link) by Lilian Tsourdi (emphasis added):

"Developments point to the emergence of an increasingly integrated administration in the field of asylum. This is neither inherently positive, nor inherently negative. However, it brings with it novel challenges of both a constitutional and practical nature. While the first concern the division of powers between the EU and national levels, the latter concern effectively upholding applicants’ fundamental and procedural rights. Broadening agencies’ powers in the Home Affairs area, and the nascent forms of joint implementation, will have to be coupled with a rethink in EU administrative law and the establishment of effective guarantees.

Cognizant of that fact, the European Parliament has proposed in its draft position on the European Union Agency on Asylum the establishment of a Fundamental Rights Officer; a Fundamental Rights Strategy; an individual complaints mechanism; and a robust role for the agency’s Consultative Forum in that setting. These proposals recognise the increasingly operational role this agency has to play, and reflect similar developments regarding the EU Border and Coast Guard. They form necessary, but still insufficient, measures that this evolving implementation set-up calls for. The dedicated workshop in theOdysseus Network Annual Policy Conference on the 10th February 2016 will present a forum to critically assess and further debate on these developments."

8. UK: Spycop’s alias confirmed by public inquiry (The Ferret, link):

"The public inquiry into the policing scandal has confirmed the undercover identity of a police officer who is believed to have operated in Scotland.

The Pitchford Inquiry has confirmed that ‘Simon Wellings’ was the alias used by a so-called spycop who operated north of the border after infiltrating the anti-globalisation group, Global Resistance (GR).

Wellings is the latest spycop name to be confirmed by the inquiry, following ‘Marco Jacobs’ and ‘Carlo Neri,’ both of whom also worked undercover in Scotland according to campaigners."
See: Simon Wellings – profile of #spycop now up (Undercover Research Group, link) and: Undercover Policing Inquiry: Update on anonymity applications - N118 ("Simon Wellings") (pdf)

9. UK: LONDON, 9 February 2017: Final conference of the BYTE project on big data
"BYTE will be hosting our project final conference on Capturing the benefits of big data and addressing legal, ethical and social challenges. The conference will include policy-makers, large industry, academics, civil society organisations, SMEs and legal experts.It will focus on the following priority areas for big data practice in Europe:

• Smart cities
• Healthcare
• Environmental data
• Data ethics
• Industrial innovation

The event will showcase BYTE findings and feature presentations by experts in urban transportation, genomics, geo-spatial data, open data and linked data."
See: FINAL CONFERENCE ANNOUNCEMENT (Byte, link). The conference is free and open to all, registration is required.

10. TURKEY-GREECE-EU: Turkey may cancel readmission deal with Greece after court's failure to extradite FETÖ soldiers (Daily Sabah, link):

"Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavusoglu said on Friday that Turkey will take necessary measures against Greece following the court's failure to extradite Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ) soldiers involved in the July 15 failed coup attempt, to Turkey.

Çavusoglu said that Turkey may consider cancelling the readmission deal with Greece, which allows the latter to return illegal migrants -who traveled through Turkey- to Turkey, in order to be processed before they are sent back to their country of origin, TRT Haber reported.

He highlighted that the Greek court's ruling is a political rather than a legal decision, noting that it will have unavoidable implications for bilateral relations.

"They're not just petty criminals" Çavusoglu said, adding that the soldiers attempted to kill President Recep Tayyip Erdogan."

11. Italy: A refugee has drowned while tourists laughed and told him to ‘go back home’ [VIDEO] (The Canary, link):

"Shocking footage has emerged of the moment a refugee drowned in Venice, Italy. The man, thought to be from Gambia, a country which has been on the brink of war, died in the icy waters of the Grand Canal. But instead of helping him, onlookers filmed, laughed and told him to “go back home”.

“Let him die”

The man, named as 22-year-old Gambian Pateh Sabally, died on Sunday 22 January. He got into difficulties in Venice’s Grand Canal as tourist boats went past. But onlookers didn’t care. They filmed the man’s last moments, and shouted abuse.

One person can be heard saying “He’s stupid. He wants to die”. Another said “Go on. Go back home”. Someone else said ““Let him die at this point”. And in the video people can be heard laughing."
And see: 'Let him die' shout onlookers as African refugee drowns in Venice's Grand Canal - The Gambian man was left to drown while passers-by filmed the incident (IBT, link):

"Italian magistrates have opened an investigation after a Gambian man drowned on 22 January in Venice's Grand Canal in front of onlookers who filmed the incident, laughing and shouting racist comments."
 12.  Increased surveillance in the Med and policing Libya's southern border
On Thursday there will be an Informal Justice and Home Affairs Council meeting in Malta under the Maltese Council Presidency. Among the issues under discussion will be the latest attempt to end the movement of refugees into Libya and then on to Italy. This is set out in a Joint Communication from the Commission and the EEAS (European External Action Service): Migration on the Central Mediterranean route, Managing flows, saving lives (JOIN 4-17,pdf)

While Commission President Juncker recognises that: "First and foremost, stability in Libya and the region as a whole is required" most plans are already known. Two new initiatives are speeding up the introduction of the "Seahorse Mediterranean Network" and sending the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) mission to strengthen Libya's southern border controls.Managing migration along the Central Mediterranean Route – Commission contributes to Malta discussion (Press release, pdf)

• Response by the USA (pdf)

13. Hungary: You don’t know which direction this whole political system will go, says Balázs Tóth of the Hungarian Helsinki Committee (Budapest Beacon, link):

"As far as his outlook for 2017, Balázs says “there is definitely no reason to be optimistic.”

“If you would have asked me in 2010 whether I could imagine the developments that have taken place in Hungary over the past 6 years, I would have said ‘No’. But they did happen, and life goes on. I would say that most people in society don’t like this system, but there is a solid 25-30 percent base of voters who still support this regime, and that is enough to keep them in power. I can’t foresee what is going to happen in the future. We don’t know what Orbán meant when he said 2017 will be the year all the Soros-supported NGOs will be somehow excluded from public life. But if it gets any more serious than what we have seen so far, there may be cause for concern.”"
And see: Space for independent journalism will continue to shrink in 2017, says Direkt36’s András Petho (Budapest Beacon, link)

14.  UK: SCOTLAND: Women's statement: Full investigation needed on undercover policing in Scotland (Police Spies Out Of Lives, link):

"The review into Undercover Policing set up by HMICS in Scotland is an insult to those of us who were spied on there. It is the Police investigating the police, with the people affected by undercover policing being given no voice. Our experience would lead us to expect a cover up. HMICS is staffed with ex-police, some of whom will return to policing with the force they are examining, and some of whom actually have links to undercover policing in Scotland. It is also limited to events from 2000. Those of us who were spied on in Scotland before that date will not even be included.

We call for a full Public Inquiry to get to the truth of what happened in Scotland, and in all the countries these undercover officers operated in. We call for everyone who was spied on to be given access to the police files held on them in all of these countries. These units were political policing units, akin to the Stasi of East Germany. They must be closed, and held accountable for their actions.”"

This condemnation follows the previous: Scottish Inquiry – Reputation Before Justice (COPS, link) and see: Strategic Review of Undercover Policing in Scotland - Terms of Reference (pdf)

15. GREECE: How One Man Made Greece a More Welcoming Place for Refugees (Open Society Foundations, link):

A short film from the Open Society Foundations on Vasilis Tsartsanis' efforts to help refugees in Greece: "A group of people walking through the fields caught Vasilis Tsartsanis’s eye as he passed the railroad that connects Greece to the rest of the Balkans. It was a warm September day in 2014, outside the small, usually quiet town of Idomeni. He stopped to watch. Another group passed by. Then a third group, who told him about a crossing that, one year later, would come to exemplify Europe’s refugee emergency.

Tsartsanis didn’t have to think long about what he should do. He ran and got some food, water, and clothes for the migrants. Long before international organizations and donors turned their attention to Idomeni, Tsartsanis and other locals were there offering their help.

Tsartsanis didn’t stop at handing out emergency supplies. He started writing to politicians and authorities, advocating on behalf of the refugees whose stories he knew better than most. He was soon invited to address the European Parliament. He talked to major media outlets.

He didn’t have a large organization behind him or a dedicated advocacy team­perhaps that was his strength. He was a local who was helping people in his area. He enjoyed the trust of his community. Tsartsanis now regularly organizes missions for members of parliament and EU governments to Greece’s camps and has been active in efforts to relocate refugees to other countries."

16. FRANCE: Far-right: the Front National : brief history and overview of electoral results
As presidential elections in France approach, a research note from the UK Parliament published after the European Parliament elections in 2014 provides an overview of previous electoral results of the far-right Front National (FN). The party will publish its new manifesto next month; last weekend (21 January) FN leader Marine Le Pen was the headline speaker at a "counter-summit" of EU far-right parties held in Koblenz, Germany.

17. EU-Turkey deal: Ombudsman says that Commission must do more to assess human rights impact
The European Ombudsman, Emily O'Reilly has today issued a decision (pdf) that says the European Commission must undertake a more thorough assessment of the human rights impact of the EU-Turkey deal on migrants and refugees, which could be done by including a section on human rights in its future progress reports on the implementation of the deal.

18. EU: More "going dark" problems: Europol wants data retention to ease identification of individual internet users
Europol has written to national delegations in the Council of the EU expressing the concerns of law enforcement agencies regarding the use of Carrier-Grade Network Address Translation (CGN) technology, which hampers "cyber" investigations by making it impossible for officers to "link a particular cyber criminal's activity back to a particular IP address."

See: Carrier-Grade Network Address Translation (CGN) and the Going Dark Problem - initial debate (5127/17, LIMITE, 16 January 2017, pdf)

19. Italy: New CIEs and the repatriation of foreigners: ASGI statement on the Chief of Police's circular (pdf):

"ASGI is disconcerted and expresses deep concern for the circular issued by the interior ministry on 30.12.2016 concerning activities to repatriate irregular foreigners and the programme to reopen CIEs (Centres for identification and expulsion), apart from the Government’s desire to strike new bilateral readmission agreements and to reform the norms on the right to asylum in a restrictive direction."
The text of the chief of police’s circular of 30 December 2016 (10/01/2017): "Activity to track down irregular foreign citizens in the national territory for the purpose of repatriation."
20.  EU: "The winter of our shame", Strasbourg, 18 January 2017. Barbara Spinelli MEP (GUE/NGL) intervened during the plenary session of the European Parliament regarding the declarations by the Council and the Commission on emergency assistance for refugees and migrants who are facing adverse climatic conditions in European refugee camps:

"I ask myself how many asylum seekers will have to die due to the cold, in this winter of our shame.

I ask the Commission to listen to Amnesty and the refugees' Community Leaders in Moria. For migrants on the islands to be moved to the mainland, in places other than camps without electricity nor water. The EU-Turkey agreement does not envisage that the returns should be from the islands, as Erdogan wants. In these conditions, refugees should not be sent back to Italy and Greece on the basis of the Dublin system.

Finally, let's tell ourselves that this is not a crisis of refugees. It is the collapse of our asylum policies, those of relocation, family reunification, and respect for the right to life. Dear Commissioner Stylianides, such a cold winter was not unpredictable. Alongside the refugees of Moria, I ask for an end to the deportations of the most vulnerable people to Turkey, and for all the procedural guarantees to which the applicants have a right to be guaranteed.""
See also: European Parliament: Refugees: MEPs demand emergency winter aid and transfers to other EU countries (Press release, pdf):

"EU and national authorities should provide emergency aid to help migrants and refugees to cope with freezing temperatures and snow in several parts of Europe, MEPs urged on Wednesday. They also called on EU governments to keep their promises to transfer thousands of asylum-seekers, particularly from Greece, to other countries.

Several speakers called the plight of refugees in the Greek islands, but also in other countries like Serbia and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, “unacceptable” and some asked how many people have to die of cold before the EU reacts. Many MEPs underlined that only 6% of the 160,000 asylum-seekers who should have been relocated from Greece and Italy have so far been moved.""
21. Campaign Opposing Police Surveillance: Spycops Activists Demand Meeting with Scottish Government (COPS, link){

"There has been emphatic condemnation of the terms of the Scottish inquiry into undercover policing. Not only is it a self-investigation by senior police, it is limited to the last few years of abuses. Although the Special Demonstration Squad was formed in 1968, the Scottish review will not examine anything before 2000....

Today, a group of the core participants who were also spied upon in Scotland have written to Michael Matheson requesting a meeting. Here is the text of their letter...."
22. European migration control in Libya (andrej-hunko.de, link):

"The Libyan navy and the coastguard under its authority are being groomed as gatekeepers of Fortress Europe. Even a migration partnership is under discussion.

Since the forcible regime change in 2011, the European Union has been supporting what it calls reform of the security sector in Libya. Its policy is based on the Berlusconi motto of ‘more oil, less migrants’. The new Libyan Government of National Accord scarcely exercises any control outside Tripoli."
23. EU-TURKEY: UNHCR cannot monitor the rights of people returned under EU-Turkey deal
"What did the European Commission forget to tell us about the returnees of the EU-Turkey Deal?

So finally UNHCR stated formally, very quietly unfortunately, that has no unimpeded access to the returned refugees to Turkey and cannot monitor the returns under the EU-Turkey deal in any effective manner. In short they haven’t seen much of the returned refugees."
24. EU: Amnesty: major new report denounces Europe's "ever-expanding national security state"
A major new report from Amnesty International examines the expansion of security measures and states of emergency across 14 EU states in the last two years, warning that "the disturbing idea that Europe faces a perpetual emergency is beginning to take hold," because: "Powers intended to be exceptional are appearing more and more as permanent features of national law."

See: Amnesty International, Europe: Dangerously disproportionate: The ever-expanding national security state in Europe (link)

25. SPAIN-MOROCCO: Court orders re-opening of 'El Tarajal' case into deaths in the waters around Ceuta
A court in Cádiz, southern Spain, has ordered the re-opening of the 'El Tarajal' case regarding 15 people who drowned in February 2015 after attempting to enter the Spanish enclave of Ceuta by sea and were repelled with rubber bullets and smoke grenades by officers from the Guardia Civil.

26. EU-AFRICA: Report demonstrates priority given by EU to migration control in the Sahel
The work of the EU and its Member States to try to limit the "unprecedented numbers of irregular migrants coming through the Sahel to the coasts of the Mediterranean Sea in order to travel to Europe" are outlined in a recent joint report by the European Commission and the European External Action Service on the implementation of the EU's Sahel Regional Action Plan (RAP) between April 2015 and August 2016.

See: Annual Report on the Sahel Regional Action Plan (pdf)

27. Italy: Large-scale expansion of detention centres for tougher migration control (ECRE, link):

"Following Italy’s change of government, a Circular outlining a stricter policy on migration control by the Head of the Italian Police was distributed to police authorities across Italy. One of the measures was large-scale use of detention to control irregular migration and promote returns to third countries.

The Circular echoes the latest position of the Ministry of Interior, which has committed to an expansion of detention centres (CIE) with reference to a target of one CIE in every Italian region. At the end of 2015, 7 CIE were operational across the country according to the Roadmap on Relocation."
28. EU: Data retention and the law: Tele2 Sverige AB and Watson et al: Continuity and Radical Change (European Law Blog, link):

"The CJEU delivered its judgment in Tele2 Sverige AB and Watson on 21 December 2016. The Court had been asked by a Swedish and British court respectively to consider the scope and effect of its previous judgment in Digital Rights Ireland (discussed here). The judgment reflects continuity in so far as it follows in the line of this, and earlier judgments taking a strong stance on data protection and privacy. Yet, the degree of protection it offers these rights over competing interests, notably security, is radical. In particular, the Court unequivocally states that legislation providing for general and indiscriminate data retention is incompatible with the E-Privacy Directive, as read in light of the relevant EU Charter rights. While the judgment was delivered in the context of the E-Privacy Directive, the Court’s reasoning could equally apply to other EU secondary legislation or programmes interpreted in light of the Charter. This judgment will be a game-changer for state surveillance in Europe and while it offered an early Christmas gift to privacy campaigners, it is likely to receive a very mixed reaction from EU Member States as such. While national data retention legislation has been annulled across multiple Member States (Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Cyprus, Germany and Romania), this annulment has been based on an assessment of the proportionality of the relevant measures rather than on a finding that blanket retention is per se unlawful."

Background: Court of Justice of the EU
Watson/Tele2 Sverige AB case: The Members States may not impose a general obligation to retain data on providers of electronic communications services(Press release, pdf) and Full-text of CJEU judgment (pdf)

Digital Rights Ireland case on the Data Retention Directive: The Court of Justice declares the Data Retention Directive to be invalid (Press release, pdf) andJudgment (pdf)

29.  SPAIN: Coalition of 85 Spanish NGOs demand clarification of potential push backs of over thousand people at Spanish-Moroccan border (ECRE, link):

"A coalition of 85 Spanish NGOs, including ECRE Member CEAR, wrote an open letter to Juan Ignacio Zoido, Spanish Minister of the Interior this week. In the letter the coalition demands clarification over the potential push backs of over 1000 people at the Spanish-Moroccan land border Ceuta in the beginning of this year and the orders given to the Spanish Border Guards.

Following media reports, an estimated 1,100 people tried to climb over the border fence between the Spanish enclave Ceuta and Morocco at 4am at New Year’s Day. From the total amount of people only two persons entered Spanish territory, being severely injured and treated in the hospital. The remaining people were returned to Morocco."

And see: Spain: Collective expulsions at the Moroccan border (EuroMed Rights, link):

"Copenhagen, 13/01/17 – EuroMed Rights deplores and condemns the attitude of the Spanish authorities who refused entry to the individuals attempting to enter in Ceuta from Morocco on the night of 31 December without conducting a prior examination of their situation. The migrants were systematically turned away and were not given access to individualized asylum-seeker procedures."

30. EU: e-Privacy Regulation: Good intentions but a lot of work to do (EDRi, link):

"The proposed draft Regulation contains a number of provisions which, if adopted and effectively implemented, should address some of the current gaps or lack of clarity in protection of the confidentiality of electronic communications and information stored on users devices. The process of consultation and polls have shown that citizens are concerned about their privacy and about how companies make use of their personal information online. Although the Commission has rightly identified and addressed most of the key issues and objectives in the proposal, strong forces seem to have watered down the text considerably, compared to the earlier version that was leaked in December 2016. For example, the reference to “privacy by design and by default” that was changed in Article 10 will need to be put back in order not to lower down the protections to the current “privacy by option”, options on the degree of online privacy that the browser would offer to the user."

See: Proposal for a Regulation concerning the respect for private life and the protection of personal data in electronic communications and repealing Directive 2002/58/EC (Regulation on Privacy and Electronic Communications)(pdf)

And: the earlier leaked draft (7.5MB, pdf)

DOCUMENTION
1. EU: Revision of Firearms Directive nearing completion
"The provisional deal with the Council on the updated EU firearms directive was endorsed by Parliament’s Internal Market Committee on Thursday by 25 votes to nine, with two abstentions. The revised law tightens the controls on blank firing and inadequately deactivated weapons like those used in the Paris terror attacks. It also requires EU countries to have a monitoring system in place for the issuance or renewal of licences and to exchange information with one another."
European Parliament press release: EU gun law updated to close security loopholes while protecting legitimate users (pdf)

And: Revision of the EU firearms directive: an overview (pdf): "In this background note you will find more information on what was agreed during the “trilogues” (three-way talks between Parliament, Council and Commission negotiators)."

2.   EU-USA PNR: European Commission: Security Union: Commission reports on the implementation of the EU-US TFTP and PNR Agreements (Press release, pdf):

• Report on the joint review of the implementation of the Agreement between the European Union and the United States of America on the processing and transfer of Financial Messaging Data from the European Union to the United States for the purposes of the Terrorist Finance Tracking Program (COM 31-17, pdf)

"the report underlines the important role of Europol in carrying out its verification tasks of requests for data from the EU and proactively initiating a series of requests, thus helping to raise awareness of the TFTP among EU authorities.

The Commission also makes some suggestions to Member States to provide regular feedback on the TFTP data received from the US authorities to further improve the quality and quantity of information exchanged and encourages Europol to further continue its efforts in providing support to Member States. The next review will be conducted at the beginning of 2018."
• Report on the joint review of the implementation of the Agreement between the European Union and the United States of America on the processing and transfer of passenger name records to the United States Department of Homeland Security (COM 29-16, pdf)

"However, despite the positive implementation of the Agreement, some improvements remain necessary. Amongst other measures, the US authorities should monitor more closely the number of staff with access rights to PNR data as well as regularly monitor the list of sensitive data codes to ensure that any sensitive data is automatically blocked by the system. In addition, the US authorities should ensure that PNR data which is no longer required is masked out, anonymised or deleted as soon as possible. The next joint evaluation of the Agreement is due to take place later in 2017."
• SWD: Commission Staff Working Document (SWD 14-17, pdf)
• Response by the USA (pdf)

3. EU: Council of the European Union: Qualifications Directive
Latest version of the Council developing its negotiating position: Proposal for a Regulation on standards for the qualification of third-country nationals or stateless persons as beneficiaries of international protection, for a uniform status for refugees or for persons eligible for subsidiary protection and for the content of the protection granted and amending Council Directive 2003/109/EC of 25 November 2003 concerning the status of third-country nationals who are long-term residents (LIMITE doc no: 5402-17, pdf): With 135 Footnotes giving detailed Member State positions.

"To ensure harmonisation and more convergence in asylum decisions and as regards the content of international protection in order to reduce incentives to move within the European Union and ensure an equality of treatment of beneficiaries of international protection that Directive should be repealed and replaced by a Regulation." [emphasis added]

This replaces the following objective in the current Directive:

"on standards for the qualification of third-country nationals or stateless persons as beneficiaries of international protection, for a uniform status for refugees or for persons eligible for subsidiary protection, and for the content of the protection granted."

"Suggested modifications (by the Presidency) are indicated as follows: added text is in bold and deleted text is in strikehtrough."
4. EU: Council of the European Union: EPPO, "Blue Card" (Legal migration) & Humanitarian visas
• European Public Prosecutors' Office: Proposal for a Regulation on the establishment of the European Public Prosecutor's Office - Preparation for a general approach (LIMITE doc no: 5154-17, 156 pages, pdf): Almost agreed Council position prior to trilogue with the European Parliament. However, there is a problem, although most Member States agree on the text:

"One Member State (Sweden) announced that it would in any case not take part in the adoption of the European Public Prosecutor's Office."
This means that there will not be unanimity in the Council so it plans fast-track "enhanced cooperation" under second subparagraph of Article 86(1) TFEU.

• Blue Card: Proposal for a Directive on the conditions of entry and residence of third-country nationals for the purposes of highly skilled employment(LIMITE doc no 5336-17, pdf) The Council working out its negotiating position with 149 Member State objections/positions.

The term "Blue Card" is a euphemism for "legal migration" through which the EU will seek out skilled labour from the South and elsewhere to maintain its standard of living in the face of an aging population and shrinking work force.

• Humanitarian visas rejected by the Council and Commission: Visa Working Party/Mixed Committee (EU/Iceland, Norway and Switzerland, Liechtenstein): Summary of discussions (LIMITE doc no: 15602-16, pdf):

"the Chair reported that the European Parliament (EP) had recently sent the Presidency the four-column table containing new compromise proposals from the Rapporteur, in which the provisions on the humanitarian visa had been maintained. Furthermore, the Chair reported that the Rapporteur had let the Presidency know that he would not agree to put the humanitarian visa on hold and wanted to continue negotiations on the other outstanding issues.

AT, FR, BE, NL, HU, SE, SI, ES and PT were against continuing negotiations....

The Chair announced that a trilogue would be held to formally inform the EP of the Council's decision. COM said that the Commission was attached to its proposal but was also against the idea of a humanitarian visa."
5. UK-EU: European Parliament Study: Brexit and the EU: General institutional and legal considerations (pdf)

"This study was requested by the Committee on Constitutional Affairs of the European Parliament. It examines the political and institutional steps taken, or to be taken, both by the UK and by the EU in the context of the Brexit referendum vote, and into how matters may evolve in the coming months and years from a legal and institutional perspective.

It analyses, in broad terms, the possibilities for a future relationship between the Union and its departing member and the consequences that the departure of a large Member State may entail for the rest of the policies of the Union and for the Union itself. The study also briefly examines the potential for institutional progress that opens with the departure of the United Kingdom."
6.  EU-USA: European Commission: Security Union: Commission reports on the implementation of the EU-US TFTP and PNR Agreements (Press release, pdf):

• Report on the joint review of the implementation of the Agreement between the European Union and the United States of America on the processing and transfer of Financial Messaging Data from the European Union to the United States for the purposes of the Terrorist Finance Tracking Program (COM 31-17, pdf)

"the report underlines the important role of Europol in carrying out its verification tasks of requests for data from the EU and proactively initiating a series of requests, thus helping to raise awareness of the TFTP among EU authorities.

The Commission also makes some suggestions to Member States to provide regular feedback on the TFTP data received from the US authorities to further improve the quality and quantity of information exchanged and encourages Europol to further continue its efforts in providing support to Member States. The next review will be conducted at the beginning of 2018."
• Report on the joint review of the implementation of the Agreement between the European Union and the United States of America on the processing and transfer of passenger name records to the United States Department of Homeland Security (COM 29-16, pdf)

"However, despite the positive implementation of the Agreement, some improvements remain necessary. Amongst other measures, the US authorities should monitor more closely the number of staff with access rights to PNR data as well as regularly monitor the list of sensitive data codes to ensure that any sensitive data is automatically blocked by the system. In addition, the US authorities should ensure that PNR data which is no longer required is masked out, anonymised or deleted as soon as possible. The next joint evaluation of the Agreement is due to take place later in 2017."
• SWD: Commission Staff Working Document (SWD 14-17, pdf)
• Response by the USA (pdf)

7. EU: e-Privacy Regulation: Good intentions but a lot of work to do (EDRi, link):

"The proposed draft Regulation contains a number of provisions which, if adopted and effectively implemented, should address some of the current gaps or lack of clarity in protection of the confidentiality of electronic communications and information stored on users devices. The process of consultation and polls have shown that citizens are concerned about their privacy and about how companies make use of their personal information online. Although the Commission has rightly identified and addressed most of the key issues and objectives in the proposal, strong forces seem to have watered down the text considerably, compared to the earlier version that was leaked in December 2016. For example, the reference to “privacy by design and by default” that was changed in Article 10 will need to be put back in order not to lower down the protections to the current “privacy by option”, options on the degree of online privacy that the browser would offer to the user."

See: Proposal for a Regulation concerning the respect for private life and the protection of personal data in electronic communications and repealing Directive 2002/58/EC (Regulation on Privacy and Electronic Communications)(pdf)

And: the earlier leaked draft (7.5MB, pdf)

8.  UK-EU: BREXIT: Article 50 Bill published (pdf) and Explanatory Memorandum (pdf)

The government has published its Bill and MPs are to get just five days to debate and scrutinise. The Bill contains two clauses and is 137 words long.

9. EU: High-Level Expert Group on Information Systems and Interoperability report"A common repository would be a logical next step after a shared biometric matching service."
Report of the third meeting of the High-Level Expert Group on Infomation Systems and Interoperability (dated 29 November 2016, just published): See:High-level expert group on information systems and interoperability Third meeting - 29 November 2016 Report (pdf)

10. EU-AFRICA: Report demonstrates priority given by EU to migration control in the Sahel See: Annual Report on the Sahel Regional Action Plan (pdf)

11. United Nations Special Rapporteur: On the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association: Civil Society Guide: A handbook for using the practical recommendations on the management of assemblies report by United Nations Special Rapporteurs Maina Kiai and Christof Heyns (pdf) And:

Checklist Implementation: A step-by-step checklist for monitoring implementation of the practical recommendations on the management of assemblies report by United Nations Special Rapporteurs Maina Kiai and Christof Heyns (pdf):

"We are pleased to announce the launch of Special Rapporteur Maina Kiai's latest report, the "10 Principles Civil Society Guide", which is designed to help civil society advance the protection and promotion of human rights in the context of assemblies domestically.....

The Guide provides suggestions, tools and inspiration to CSOs as they consider how they might push for the implementation of the practical recommendations in their own context. It is divided into four parts: Section 1 gives background on the practical recommendations report. Section 2 focuses on how CSOs can determine authorities’ compliance with the practical recommendations. Section 3 discusses methods for gathering the evidence necessary for monitoring compliance and building advocacy arguments. Lastly, Section 4 provides real-life examples of research and advocacy tactics which have been used to advance rights in the context of protests."
12. EU: Commission: Back to Schengen: Commission proposes that the Council allows Member States to maintain temporary controls for another three months (Press release, pdf):

"Brussels, 25 January 2017: European Commission: The European Commission has today recommended the Council allows Member States to maintain the temporary controls currently in place at certain internal Schengen borders in Austria, Germany, Denmark, Sweden and Norway for a further period of three months."
And see Proposal for: Council Implementing Decision setting out a Recommendation for prolonging temporary internal border control in exceptional circumstances putting the overall functioning of the Schengen area at risk (COM 40-16,pdf)

13.  Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA): The impact of the proposal for a revised Eurodac Regulation on fundamental rights (link):

"The European Parliament asked the Agency to provide its Opinion on the fundamental rights impact of the proposed revision of the Eurodac Regulation on children."
See: The impact of the proposal for a revised: Eurodac Regulation on fundamental rights Opinion of the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (pdf)

14. Council of Europe: Big Data: we need to protect the persons behind the data (link)

"Big Data is changing the manner in which the society can be understood. It provides valuable insights and offers opportunities for innovation, enhancing productivity and social participation."
See: Guidelines (pdf)

Observatory on the refugee crisis in the Med and inside the EU: Updated daily:
http://www.statewatch.org/eu-med-crisis.htm

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