Surveillance: EU Commission & responses to the Stockholm programme

In its Communication 262/4, on 10 June 2009, to the EU Parliament and the COuncil, the EU Commission seems to favour "wider freedom in a safer environment" so that there can be "An area of freedom, security and justice serving the citizen" (p. 2, 16).
http://www.statewatch.org/news/2009/jun/eu-com-stockholm-prog.pdf

The problem is as usual: safety is done through sharing of information. But how this information is collected and used remained very much undefined... So not surprisingly, there are oppositions to the Stockholm programme
See the Statewatch's summary: http://www.statewatch.org/future-group.htm (
and also the seminar organised on 31 may 2009 http://www.statewatch.org/news/2009/may/surveillance-states-seminar.pdf

with references to the European Civil Liberties Network's own analysis http://www.ecln.org/ECLN-statement-on-Stockholm-Programme-April-2009-eng.pdf

One can only agree when one looks at the EU Council's report of the "Check the Web" project launched in 2007 and presented by Europol to the COuncil on 15 May 2009 http://www.statewatch.org/news/2009/jun/eu-europol-use-of-personal-data-in-the-check-the-web-project-9604-09.pdf
and the analysis provided by Cryptohippie on Statewatch's website, which describes well what is a police state and how blissfully unaware we can be until it is too late http://www.statewatch.org/news/2009/jun/electronic-police-state-2008.pdf

See also, Watching the computers. Function creep allows EU states to use intrusive remote computer searches to target any crime, however minor (TheGuardian, 9 June 2009)

the fact that the surveillance attitude is widespread does not help Canadian Politicians Want To Pass Internet Snooping Legislation (TechDirt, 19 June 2009)

And contrary to the wide-spread feeling, security is not a justification per se for surveillance even if obviously increased CCTV and the like can help detecting crime As Google Agrees To Delete Unblurred Street View Images In Germany, One Is Used To Solve A Crime

Finally, see EU Parliament on the subject
with its "REPORT with a proposal for a European Parliament recommendation to the Council on strengthening security and fundamental freedoms on the Internet
(2008/2160(INI))" (25 February 2009)

and the HL view on procedural rights in EU criminal proceedings http://www.statewatch.org/news/2009/may/eu-hol-ec-procedural-rights.pdf