Plan to weed out summit protestors

Date: 11/09/03

Italy's EU presidency is advocating that "targeted close checks" should be carried out on protestors travelling to summits of the Union's leaders to weed out potential troublemakers.

Even though justice ministers are not due to discuss the plan until their 2-3 October meeting, it has already drawn fire from the Netherlands.

Rome has proposed a resolution for the Council of Ministers, which says member states should be required to furnish an EU country hosting a summit "with any information of relevance in identifying individuals with a record of having caused disturbances in similar circumstances". But as well as providing intelligence on known troublemakers, they could also give alerts on those they think "may disrupt" the smooth running of a summit.

Details of that nature would then be used by the host state, should it decide to make use of a provision in the Schengen accord on passport-free travel, which allows border checks with a view to preventing certain people travelling from one EU country to another under exceptional circumstances. Personal data could be stored by the host country's authorities until the summit has finished.

According to the Italian proposal, greater liaison is needed between member states to prevent a recurrence of the riots which have marred several EU summits in recent years, including those at Thessaloniki, Nice and Göteborg.

But in a paper responding to the Rome blueprint, The Hague says the issue should not be addressed through a Council of Ministers resolution, which is "basically a political and non-binding text". Instead, the Dutch say drawing up a formal, binding law should be considered to achieve "a solid system to safeguard security" at summits.

Civil liberties advocates, meanwhile, complain that the Italian blueprint is so loosely worded that it could facilitate the surveillance of all protestors, not just those who have a conviction for violence, and would thereby become an instrument for quelling peaceful dissent.

Italy is to propose new measures to limit the number of people protesting at summit meetings of the European Council.