EU homeland security: citizens or suspects?

Abstract:

EU homeland security agenda and the associated biometric instruments signal the increasing securitisation of the EU but challenge the EU's commitment to the principles of freedom, democracy and justice. The doctrine of exceptionalism and use of EU biometry to service immigration and internal security priorities (such as combating terrorism and the US homeland security agenda) may compromise EU legitimacy and raise the spectre of the concept of citizens as suspects. The article outlines the claims of 'exceptionalism' used to rationalise e-security, biometry and PNR. It concludes with thoughts on the citizen as suspect and the step change from viewing the citizen as an empowered individual in the supranational political space to the citizen as the object of supranational security agencies.