- to "prevent individuals or groups who are
considered to pose a potential threat to the
maintenance of public law and order and/or
security from travelling to the location of the
event" - and to put in place: "The necessary
arrangements for a quick and efficient
implementation of the potential expulsion
measures" - EU Security Handbook: "The scope of
the manual is now such that it applies to the
security (both from a public order point of view
as well as counter-terrorism) of all major
international events, be it political, sporting, social, cultural or other."

Tony Bunyan, Statewatch editor, comments:

"We can now see a pattern emerging across the EU
where people who exercise their democratic right
to attend cross border protests are confronted by
aggressive para-military policing, surveillance,
preventive detention and expulsion.

This is a reflection of the EU's definition of
"security" at international events which is now
defined as covering both "counter-terrorism" and "public order".

Back in 2003 the bilateral exchange of
information on "suspected troublemakers" between
EU states for international events was agreed.
What is proposed now is not the one-off exchange
of information related to a specific event but a
permanent EU-wide database of suspected
"troublemakers", this is utterly unacceptable in a democratic Europe."

See also: Policing protests in Switzerland, Italy and Germany:
 http://www.statewatch.org/news/2008/apr/02policing-protests.htm





 http://www.statewatch.org/news/2008/apr/04eu-troublemakers.htm