3.1 Transparency – Page 4 – European Area of Freedom Security & Justice

Transparency in the EU : the distance between principles and Institution’s practices is widening up..

By Emilio De Capitani

As clearly explained in the previous post (Henri Labayle study on Access to documents) Transparency and good administration have become a core element of the post-Lisbon Constitutional Framework (1) However, notwithstanding the recurrent rhetoric declarations and promises in these pre-electoral days by several political figures at European and national level, four years after the entry into force of the Treaty and of the Charter the situation is even worse than before.
It is then more than likely that the the best supporters of the Eurosceptic movements are in these days the EU institutions and the Member States which are still blocking the reform of the EU rules on access to documents and whose daily practices are often contrary to the Treaties, the legislation into force, the ECJ jurisprudence and probably their own internal rules

A dead end for the rules on access to documents (Regulation 1049/01) ?

The EU legislative framework on access to documents dates back to 2001 when Regulation 1049/01 was adopted. It was against the unwillingness of the Commission and of several Members States but it was a success because of a (temporary) strong political majority in the European Parliament, a skilled Swedish Council Presidency and clear support by the civil society.

However in the following years notwithstanding a growing support by the European Court of Justice Jurisprudence the Council and Commission practice has tried to rebuild the previous opaque practices. Paradoxically the turning point has been after the groundbreaking “Turco” Case (C-39/05 P and C-52/05 P Sweden and Turco v Council and Commission, judgment of 1 July 2008) by which the Court considered that openness “contributes to strengthening democracy by enabling citizens to scrutinise all the information which has formed the basis for a legislative act. The possibility for citizens to find out the considerations underpinning legislative action is a precondition for the effective exercise of their democratic rights”(Sweden and Turco v Council, paragraph 46). In this perspective the Court of justice considered that it was also admissible to have access even to the Institution’s legal service opinions notably when dealing with the soundness of legislative works (2).
Continue reading “Transparency in the EU : the distance between principles and Institution’s practices is widening up..”

Henri LABAYLE : Openness, transparency and access to documents and information in the EU

Source : European Parliament Policy Department: Citizens’ Rights and Constitutional Affairs
Full text of the Study
Author: Henri Labayle, professor at University de Pau et des pays de l’Adour (FR)

INTRODUCTION

1. LEGAL FRAMEWORK OF RIGHT OF ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS

1.1 Constitutional framework
1.1.1 Principle of openness
1.1.2 Principle of transparency
1.1.3 Right of access to documents
1.2 Regulatory framework of the right of access to documents
1.2.1 System for the right of access
1.2.2 Exercise of the right of access
1.3 Case-law framework of the right of access to documents
1.3.1 Principle of right of access
1.3.2 Content of right of access

EXERCISING THE RIGHT OF ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS

2.1 Details of comparison
2.1.1 The Council of Europe
2.1.2 National comparisons
2.2 Institutional practices relating to access to documents
2.2.1 Practice of the Commission
2.2.2 Practice of the Council
2.2.3 Practice of the European Parliament
2.2.4 Details of comparison

3. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

This study is an update to a previous study about case law in relation to the right of (1) access to documents. It puts into perspective the Union’s institutional practice in relation to the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon. The right of access to documents in the Union is part of a legal context updated by the Treaty of Lisbon. The principles of transparency and good governance have constitutional implications for the Union’s institutions, and the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union establishes them as a fundamental right. While the implementation of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 has been a success during the last 10 years, it now needs to be revised to bring it up to date.
In fact, the constitutional progress represented by the Treaty of Lisbon has been boosted by advances in case law.
The challenge of the revision process, requested by the European Parliament since 2006 and initiated in 2008, involves giving consideration to the following two elements: the declaration of a fundamental right and the important lessons learnt from case law.
This body of case law and observation of the Union’s institutional practice have given rise to the following significant remarks.

I – The first remark concerns the very nature of the right of access.

The combination of the Treaty of Lisbon with the case law relating to Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 now creates a different perception of the right of access. Before being an institutional challenge within the Union, requiring institutions to have the same amount of information when performing their duties, access to documents has now become a right of the individual. This is a general trend. It is noted in comparative law and in European law in particular, with this being confirmed by the Convention of the Council of Europe on Access to Official Documents. The nature of the obstacles it describes preventing the right of access is largely the same as that under EU law. On the other hand, the Union does not give a specific independent authority the guarantee of access to documents, unlike many of its Member States.

II – A second series of remarks derives from the Court of Justice’s interpretation of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001.

Apart from the far-reaching nature of this right, in less than five years, the Court has given its verdict accordingly on exercising the right of access in relation to administrative, legislative and judicial matters.
1. The right of access to documents is linked to the Union’s democratic nature. Transparency guarantees greater legitimacy and accountability of the administration in a democratic system because citizens need to have the opportunity to understand the considerations underpinning EU regulations in order to exercise their democratic rights (Turco, Access Info Europe cases).
2. Access must be as broad as possible, thereby reducing the internal `space to think’ or the `negotiation space’ which the institutions want. Therefore, protecting the decision-making process within the Union excludes any general confidentiality, especially in the field of legislation (Borax, Access Info and MyTravel cases).
3. The scope of the various exceptions is tightly controlled. Therefore, the major challenge posed by the exception concerning international relations does not automatically entail confidentiality (In’t Veld cases). Similarly, court proceedings are not excluded from transparency under the guise of respect for the proper administration of justice (API case). Legal opinions are not necessarily bound by confidentiality, especially on legislative matters (Turco and MyTravel cases), no more than the identity of Member States is protected by confidentiality during the legislative procedure (Access Info Europe case).
4. Combining data protection schemes may require ‘switching’ from a general regulation to a special regulation on data protection (Bavarian Lager case) and on monitoring activities. Legal protection for confidentiality (Bavarian Lager case) and a `general presumption’ of confidentiality (Technische Glaswerke Ilmenau case) may reduce the scope of transparency.
5. The documents supplied by Member States are not covered by general confidentiality (IFAW judgment).

III – There are also plenty of lessons which may be drawn from the practice of the three EU institutions, by reading the annual reports required by the regulation and looking at certain national practices.

1. The number of applications for access in the European Union is in decline. This is not in keeping with the practices in some Member States or even in states outside the EU such as the United States or Australia.
2. The volume of refusals to provide access remains proportionally large and is tending to rise.
3. The number of applications for access in the areas of Common and Foreign Security Policy (CFSP) and Justice and Home Affairs (JHA) confirms the sensitive nature of these matters.

The type of public interested in gaining access to documents should raise questions for the Union on two counts.
Firstly, professionals are the main group requesting access to documents (particularly Commission documents) and, secondly, university institutions are nowadays the most efficient channels for transmitting information and guaranteeing administrative transparency. The glaring lack of interest from ordinary citizens in transparency must provide some food for thought.

INTRODUCTION

There is an ever-growing demand for openness and transparency in modern societies. The European Union is also subject to this demand, although it is not necessarily successful in finding solutions which meet people’s expectations.2.
The Union has undergone a sea change, from a diplomatic approach to dealing with records, where secrecy is the rule, to an institutional system requiring a democratic basis.
Firstly, and mainly as a result of the accession of new Member States, which are sensitive to this issue, the European Union made some of its documents available for public access. Declaration 17 annexed to the Treaty of Maastricht referred to the link between the transparency of the decision-making process and the democratic nature of the institutions, but its scope remained limited. Two Commission communications on transparency and access to documents were then published, followed by a `Code of Conduct’3 adopting the principle of public access to Council and Commission documents.
Secondly, the Treaty of Amsterdam enshrined these principles in primary law. Firstly, Article 1 of the treaty stated that decisions are taken as openly as possible’, thereby recognising the principle of openness. Secondly, Article 255 TEC provided a legal basis for governing the right of public access to EU documents. This would be achieved with the adoption of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 regarding public access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents . Finally, the White Paper on governance 2001 would highlight the need for involvement from and openness towards citizens to restore confidence in the Union.

Until then, the principles of `openness’ and `transparency’, which were used frequently in common parlance, had actually fulfilled more of a political than a legal function. Highlighted by the European Union with the aim of abating the crisis of confidence over the administration, these principles still had very little regulatory force, unlike the right of access to documents, which would be developed under Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001.

The scope of this study does not extend to a more in-depth examination of this historical period, but it does cover two of its main features. Firstly, openness and transparency basically boiled down to just one thing, access to information; and, secondly, the guarantee from the judicature was key to ensuring that this right had real meaning.
Case law was intended to make the judicature a prominent player in the exercise of the right of access to documents, on the instigation of the European Ombudsman, thereby conferring upon it the status of a real fundamental right.

The prospect of this development was upset by the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon. This treaty outlined a new legal framework both in terms of the functioning of the Union’s administration and of European citizens’ rights.

1. LEGAL FRAMEWORK OF RIGHT OF ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS

The Treaty of Lisbon changes not only the perception of the right of access to documents in the Union, but also the conditions under which the administration and the legislature perform their duties. Nowadays, the principles of openness and transparency feature in EU primary law, which should have consequences for the right of access to documents as one of the ways of applying that law.

1.1 Constitutional framework
The text of the treaty is clear: the principle of openness is set out in it. Hence its implementation via the principle of transparency and principle of access to documents6.

1.1.1 Principle of openness
This is a general, ‘umbrella’ term incorporating both the principle of transparency and the principle of participation.
Article 1 of the Treaty on European Union (TEU) therefore echoes the Treaty of Amsterdam by stating that it marks ‘a new stage in the process of creating an ever closer union among the peoples of Europe, in which decisions are taken as openly as possible and as closely as possible to the citizen’7.

The treaty conveys the specific meaning of this principle in two places. In Article 10(3) on the ‘functioning of the Union’, under Title II on ‘democratic principles’, the TEU confirms that ‘every citizen shall have the right to participate in the democratic life of the Union. Decisions shall be taken as openly and as closely as possible to the citizen’. The principle of openness is therefore linked for the first time to the ‘democratic life’ of the Union and to ‘representative democracy’. The Union is democratic because it is ‘open’ to its citizens, which is confirmed by the following article.

Article 11(2) TEU is aimed directly at the institutions, which must maintain ‘an open, transparent and regular dialogue’ with representative associations and civil society. It therefore adds an active dimension to the principle of openness.
The Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) reinforces the basis of the principle by setting out the terms for its implementation in Article 15(1) TFEU. The ‘Union’s institutions, bodies, offices and agencies’ have a duty to conduct their work ‘as openly as possible’ and this is ‘in order to promote good governance and ensure the participation of civil society’. This requirement requires several comments.

At this stage, the principle of openness in the Union was still regarded as a prerequisite for its functioning more than as a right of its citizens. This explains why it had a very wide scope of application, extending across the whole administrative machinery. Although it did not have an absolute remit and included no obligations in terms of results, the ‘promotion’ objective assigned to the Union still required the Union to adopt a dynamic approach.

Finally, Article 298(1) and (2) TFEU provided a vital addition to the regulatory transposition of the principle of openness. Stating that in carrying out their missions, the institutions, bodies, offices and agencies of the Union ‘shall have the support of an open, efficient and independent European administration’, it conferred on the Union’s legislature the power to ‘establish provisions to that end’.

1.1.2 Principle of transparency

As the Court of Justice confirmed in a leading case discussed below, ‘a lack of information and debate is capable of giving rise to doubts in the minds of citizens, not only as regards the lawfulness of an isolated act, but also as regards the legitimacy of the decision-making process as a whole’8. With those words, the Union judge put the debate on transparency9 squarely in the camp of legitimacy and democracy. From his perspective, ‘it is precisely openness in this regard that contributes to conferring greater legitimacy on the institutions in the eyes of European citizens and increasing their confidence in them by allowing divergences between various points of view to be openly debated’.

Previously and without yet mentioning the ‘requirement of transparency’10, the case law of the General Court and the Court of Justice had been based on Declaration 17 annexed to the Treaty of Maastricht11, in the absence of another more explicit text. Once this text became available with Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001, the judicature reinforced its argument. Transparency guarantees that ‘the administration enjoys greater legitimacy and is more effective and more accountable to the citizen in a democratic system’12. It enables them ‘to carry out genuine and efficient monitoring of the exercise of the powers vested in the Community institutions’13 . ‘Only where there is appropriate publicity of the activities of the legislature, the executive and the public administration in general, is it possible for there to be effective, efficient supervision, inter alia at the level of public opinion, of the operations of the governing organization and also for genuinely participatory organizational models to evolve as regards relations between the administration and the administered.’14

The procedural transparency and institutional transparency referred to in the TEU and TFEU merged in the Treaty of Lisbon to give some practical meaning to the Union’s action15.

The principle’s normative scope still remained limited,16 but the provisions of Article 11 TEU indicate that the battle lines had shifted. The Union’s institutions now had an obligation to apply the principle ‘by appropriate means’. Whether this involved the ‘open, transparent and regular dialogue’ with civil society stated in Article 11(2) TEU or the EU’s’actions being transparent’, which requires ‘broad consultations’ under paragraph 3, the respect for ‘democratic principles’ mentioned under Title II TEU exerted new pressure on the institutions, especially when it came to access to information, and by extension, documents. Therefore, this citizen’s right shifts from being a judgment call to being exercised in a regulatory context.

The consequences arising from this change of perspective were significant. The call for openness and transparency was no longer an abstract reference in this case, but represented a condition for the democratic legitimacy of the rule of the Union. The treaty ‘legalised’ principles that could, one day, be interpreted on the basis of case law, if, for example, a legislative act has been adopted outside this participatory dialogue required by the treaty.

1.1.3 Right of access to documents

The public’s right to access institutional documents17 was asserted in the Union by way of regulation before being enshrined in the founding treaties. The implementing regulation came before the constitutional declaration in this case, with the judge pointing out that ‘the domestic legislation of most Member States now enshrines in a general manner the public’s right of access to documents held by public authorities as a constitutional or legislative principle’18.
This right is based politically on the principle of transparency. This was confirmed by the Court of Justice in 2007: its ‘aim is to improve the transparency of the Community decision-making process, since such openness inter alia guarantees that the administration enjoys greater legitimacy and is more effective and more accountable to the citizen in a democratic system’19 . As the Court points out, ‘the possibility for citizens to find out the considerations underpinning legislative action is a precondition for the effective exercise of their democratic rights’20.

Legally speaking, this right was therefore established initially on the basis of Article 255 TEC, which gave citizens the right to access the documents of the three main institutions. It subsequently gave rise to a substantial body of case law without the Court of Justice going as far as to establish a general principle. Its general wording in the TEC explained its lack of direct effect21, with the treaty instructing derived law to provide content for it. Nevertheless, at this point the right of access changed from a simple option granted on a discretionary basis to the administered by the institutions to a true ‘subjective, fundamental right’22 granted to those targeted by Article 255 TEC.
The Treaty of Lisbon amends this law as it stands significantly in two respects.

First of all, the Charter of Fundamental Rights makes this access a fundamental right. Article 42 has the heading ‘Right of access to documents’, implying that ‘any citizen of the Union, and any natural or legal person residing or having its registered office in a Member State, has a right of access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents’. The explanatory notes accompanying the Charter point out that this Article 42 ‘has been taken’23 from Article 255 TEC, which provided the basis on which Regulation (EC) 1049/2001 had been adopted, with the Convention wishing to extend its scope.
Advocate General Maduro emphasised this change in his conclusions on the case Sweden v Commission cited above with this ‘protection of the right of access under ever higher norms’: ‘Since the right of access to documents of the institutions has become a fundamental right of constitutional import linked to the principles of democracy and openness, any piece of secondary legislation regulating the exercise of that right must be interpreted by reference to it, and limits placed on it by that legislation must be interpreted even more restrictively.’24

When referring to the relationship between Article 42 of the Charter and the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), this EU judge therefore stated that ‘with respect to the right of access to documents of the Union’s institutions, bodies, offices and agencies, the Charter provides for a special fundamental right’25.

The TFEU itself has also changed the legal environment of the right of access. This has happened, first and foremost, because the protection desired by Member States regarding the confidentiality of the Council’s work disappeared in Article 207(3) TEC 26.
On the other hand, Article 15(1) TFEU confirmed the requirements for ‘good governance’ by providing specific content for the principles of openness and transparency. In paragraph 3 the ways of exercising the right of access to documents on a compulsory basis are expressed in far more precise terms than in Article 255 TEC. The removal of the inter-governmental pillars and the downgrading of the institutional treatment of the JHA and CFSP allow it to cover all the Union’s work, which must be carried out ‘as openly as possible’.

A literal analysis of Article 15 TFEU highlights that this statement is part of an overall initiative. While the Union’s governance requires its work to be conducted ‘openly’ in paragraph 1, paragraph 3(3) of the same article refers to the proceedings of each relevant EU administrative entity being ‘transparent’. Therefore, the systematic nature of the triangle of openness/transparency/document access is outlined in the treaty. Moreover, it clearly states the scope of the obligations incumbent upon the ‘institutions, bodies, offices and agencies’. While the call for the Union’s work to be conducted ‘as openly as possible’ is not necessarily an indication of a constraint, on the other hand, the conditions for the right of access to documents are pinned down in a more binding manner.

Article 15(3) (1) TFEU starts off by defining a right ‘subject to the principles and the conditions to be defined in accordance with this paragraph’. It does not grant the legislature the power of discretion to decide what these ‘principles and conditions’ are. It is the duty of the legislature to implement the right of access allowing EU citizens to enjoy this right. The definition of its general principles and conditions for exercising it is an absolute requirement, governed by ordinary legislative procedure.

The third subparagraph of the same article then reinforces the obligations imposed on the relevant entities: they must ensure that their ‘proceedings are transparent’ and they have to draw up in their own Rules of Procedure ‘specific provisions regarding access’ to documents. This presupposes therefore that the right of access has been regulated before.
Lastly – and this is an important observation – the authors of the treaty expand considerably the group of institutions that are bound by the obligations. The group is no longer just made up of the three main institutions, but in a very general manner incorporates the ‘Union’s institutions, bodies, offices and agencies’. The penultimate subparagraph of paragraph 3 emphasises in the case of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), the European Central Bank (ECB) and the European Investment Bank (EIB) that they ‘shall be subject to this paragraph only when exercising their administrative tasks’.
This generalisation, which is already taken into account by a number of internal agencies and institutions, therefore reinforces the need for a new text on the right of access, failing which a right based on the Treaties may not be applied.

The value added offered by the Treaty of Lisbon can therefore be summarised as follows: on the one hand, the treaty establishes a real fundamental right of access to documents and, on the other hand, it tightly controls the exceptions to a right whose scope has been generalised. The value added deriving from this for individuals then allows a hierarchy of challenges to be established: before being an institutional challenge within the Union, requiring institutions to have the same amount of information when performing their duties, the access to documents has now become a right of the individual. This shift completes the structural change initiated by the Union’s judicature 20 years ago.

In this legal context, the regulation of the right of access applied by Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 13 years ago seems considerably out of touch nowadays. Both the ‘general principles’ and legitimate ‘limits’ governing the right of access, mentioned in Article 15(3) TFEU, need to be revamped by the legislator by means of the ordinary legislative procedure, a fact which should not be forgotten.

The need to update the regulation actually comes from the triangle described earlier, linking the duties of openness, transparency and access to documents 27. It extends beyond the framework of Article 15 TFEU alone, for instance, in light of Article 298 TFEU. Furthermore, the strictly minimalist approach of the Commission’s second regulatory proposal28 derives more from the amendment to the previous regulation than from the implementation of the Treaty of Lisbon.
Consequently, with regard to both the scope of the right of access and the particular issues relating to the sensitive nature of some classified documents or codifying the advances made in case law for some categories of documents, a new text needs to be adopted.

1.2 Regulatory framework of the right of access to documents

A quick recap of what this framework29 entails will make it possible to assess not only the challenges involved with its revision but also the significant impact of the case law from the Court of Justice and the General Court.

1.2.1 System for the right of access

As a result of the gap in the Treaties, Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 has become the cornerstone of the right of access to administrative documents, which has led the Court of Justice to focus specific attention on the reason for this in order to clarify its use.
This reason provides some guiding principles:
• Access to documents is linked to the principles of transparency and openness referred to by the Treaties, with the regulation consolidating current practices.
• The purpose of the regulation is ‘to give the fullest possible effect’30 to the right of access in its definition of its principles and limits. Therefore, in principle, ‘all documents should be accessible to the public’, in other words, ‘any citizen of the Union, and any natural or legal person’ residing there.
• The right of access assumes a particular meaning ‘in cases where the institutions are acting in their legislative capacity’ and it is applicable to CFSP and JHA.

On this point, Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 provides an extremely broad definition of a ‘document’ as Article 3(a) defines it as ‘any content whatever its medium (written on paper or stored in electronic form or as a sound, visual or audiovisual recording) concerning a matter relating to the policies, activities and decisions falling within the institution’s sphere of responsibility’. In specific terms, each institution has therefore been granted the procedural mechanisms required to obtain access and, by applying Regulation (EC) 1049/2001, they produce an annual report about its application.

In addition to this key text, other specific texts should be mentioned31 whose interaction with Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 caused difficulties which led the Court of Justice to settle matters (see below)32. The following table33 can provide accordingly a summary of the current state of play….

NOTES
1 Public access to the European Union documents, State of the law at the time of revision of Regulation 1049/2001′, PE 393.287, 2008 and `Classified information in light of the Lisbon Treaty’, PE 425.616, 2010.
2 Specific reference will be made to our studies Public access to the European Union documents, State of the law at the time of revision of Regulation 1049/2001′, PE 393.287, 2008 and Classified information in light of the Lisbon Treaty’, PE 425.616, 2010.
3 Code of Conduct concerning public access to Council and Commission documents, OJ L 340 31.12.1993, p. 37.
4 OJ L 145, 31.05.2001, p. 43.
5 COM(2001) 428.
6 A. Allemano, ‘Unpacking the principle of openness in EU Law, transparency, participation and democracy’, European Law Review 2014 (forthcoming).
7 J. Mendes, ‘Participation and the róle of law after Lisbon: a legal view on article 11 TEU’, CMLRev 2011.1849.
8 ECJ, 1 July 2008, Kingdom of Sweden and Turco v Council, C-39/05 P and 52/05P, paragraph 59.
9 M. Hillebrandt, D. Curtin, A. Meijer, ‘Transparency in the Council of ministers of the EU: institutional approach’, Amsterdam Centre for European law, Working paper 2012-04.
10 CFI, 25 April 2007, WWF European Policy Programme/Council, T-264/04, paragraph 61.
11 CFI, 17 June 1998, Svenska journalistfórbundet v Council, T-174/95, ECR II-2289 paragraph 66; CFI, 14 October 1999, Bavarian Lager/Commission, T-309/97, ECR II-3217, paragraph 36.
12 CFI, 7 February 2002, Kuijer/Council, T-2011/00, paragraph 52 and ECJ, 6 March 2003, Interporc/Commission C-41/00 P, ECR p. I-2125 paragraph 39.
13 ECJ, 7 December 1999, Interporc v Commission, paragraph 39.
14 Opinion of Tesauro under ECJ, 30 April 1996, Netherlands v Council, C-58/94, ECR I-2169 paragraph 14.
15 D. Curtin, ‘Judging EU secrecy’, Amsterdam Centre for European law, Working paper 2012-07.
16 See A. Meijers,’Understanding the Complex Dynamics of Transparency’, and S. Castellano et A. Ortiz, ‘Legal Framework for e-transparency and the right to public access in the EU’, Transatlantic Conference on Transparency Research, Utrecht, 2012.
17 The analysis will continue to focus on Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001, apart from provisions relating, for example, to environmental law.
18 ECJ, 30 April 1996, Netherlands v Council, C-58/94, ECR I-2169 paragraph 34.
19 ECJ, 18 December 2007, Kingdom of Sweden v Commission, C-64/05, ECR I-11389, paragraph 54.
20 id paragraph 46; see also CJEU, 17 October 2013, Council v Access Info Europe, C-280/11 P.
21 In spite of the calls of some of its Advocate Generals or the positions of the CFI: Advocate General Tesauro speaks of a ‘fundamental civil right’ in the case Netherlands v Council (paragraph 19) and the CFI talks about a ‘principle of the right to information’ (CFI, 19 July 1999, Hautala v Council, T-14/98, ECR. p. II- 2489, paragraph 87) or of the ‘principle of transparency’ (CFI, 7 February 2002, Kuijer v Council, T-211/00, ECR p. II-485, paragraph 52).
22 Opinion of Maduro under ECJ, 18 December 2007 cited above, ECR I-11389, paragraph 40.
23 By mentioning its extension to the ‘bodies and agencies’ of the EU.
24 Opinion of Maduro under ECJ, 18 December 2007 cited above, ECR I-11389, paragraphs 40-42.
25 GC, 29 November 2012, Gaby Thesing v ECB, T-590/10 paragraphs 72-73.
26 ‘For the purpose of this paragraph, the Council shall define the cases in which it is to be regarded as acting in its legislative capacity, with a view to allowing greater access to documents in those cases, while at the same time preserving the effectiveness of its decision-making process. In any event, when the Council acts in its legislative capacity, the results of votes and explanations of vote as well as statements in the minutes shall be made public.’
27 Acknowledged by the Council in its 2012 annual report on exercising the right of access, p.7.
28 COM(2011) 73.
29 For a more in-depth look at the regulatory framework and the associated case law up until 2008, refer to our study ‘Public access to the European Union documents, State of the law at the time of revision of Regulation 1049/2001’, PE 393.287, 2008.
30 CJEU, 21 July 2011, Sweden and MyTravel v Commission, C-506/08 P cited above, paragraph 73 and CJEU, 17 October 2013, Access Info Europe, C-280/11 P cited above, paragraph 28.

After “Prism” (and US Patriot Act section 215): EDRI and FREE submission to US and EU Institutions.

Submission

the European Digital Rights Initiative (EDRi) &

Fundamental Rights European Experts Group

(FREE Group)

the United States Congress,

the European Parliament and Commission

& the Council of the European Union,

& the Secretary-General & the Parliamentary Assembly

of the Council of Europe

the surveillance activities of the United States and certain European States’ national security and “intelligence” agencies

August 2013

Note on the choice of addressees:

EDRi and FREE are submitting this appeal to the addressees mentioned on the cover page for the following reasons:

– The US Congress is ultimately responsible for providing democratic oversight over the activities of the US Executive. It has established a Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB) consultation on FISA and the PATRIOT Act. However, while we are sending a copy of this submission to that consultation, this document is addressed to the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President pro tempore of the Senate because we argue that the issues raised can only be addressed properly by the establishment of a special investigation committee of Congress, with appropriate support and powers. We also wish to stress that, whatever the defects in the scope of protection afforded to non-US citizens under the US Constitution, the USA, as parties to the UN International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Council of Europe Cybercrime Convention, are bound under international law to extend privacy protection to non-US citizens and to observe the principles of legality, necessity and proportionality also in their surveillance activities.

– The European Parliament is responsible for providing democratic oversight over the activities of the European Union, and has taken a keen interest in the issues raised, as has the European Commission, which forms the executive branch of the EU. However, the European Council (representing the governments of the EU Member States) has been less demanding. We are calling for all of them to seek to establish the full truth about the relevant laws and practices, in both Europe and the USA. We are aware of the “national security” exemptions in the main EU treaties, but these are not and should not be absolute, or seen as granting Member States total exemption from scrutiny in this regard. The EU Charter on Fundamental Rights, which has fundamental status in the EU (even in relation to UN Security Council decisions) and explicitly demands full protection of personal data, cannot be simply ignored in this context. Ultimately, it is for the European Court of Justice to determine the scope of the exemption, but we already note that the US’ NSA’s activities are manifestly not limited to national security as defined in international law. We are therefore urging the EU bodies to address the issues to the fullest extent possible within their legal competences.

– The Council of Europe (CoE), as the oldest, broadest European institution, has the main responsibility for upholding human rights and the rule of law throughout the territory of its 47 Member States. Its mandate, in particular in relation to human rights and the upholding of the European Convention on Human Rights, does not exclude matters relating to national security. On the contrary, the standards that we cite in our submission have been mainly developed by the European Court of Human Rights in its case-law under the Convention. All European States are legally obliged to “secure” full protection of these rights and freedoms. Within the Council of Europe, responsibility for the upholding of these standards is shared between the Secretary-General and the Committee of Ministers (representing the CoE Member States), the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), and the Court.

Effective action on the issues addressed in this submission will require the involvement of all of the above. For that reason, we address this submission to all of them.

I. General:

1. The activities of national security agencies in Europe and the USA, and the arrangements under which they cooperate, have been outside the scope of effective democratic oversight and outside clear legal frameworks for too long; they must be brought under the Rule of Law.

2. For Europe, that means those activities must be made to comply, in law and in practice, with the relevant minimum European human rights standards developed by the European Court of Human Rights under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) summarised below, at II, and in Attachment 1. At present, it appears that several European States are not complying with these standards.

3. These European constitutional standards are in line with the global (UN) standards enunciated by the Human Rights Committee acting under the UN International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and others, briefly noted in Attachment 2. All European States and the USA are parties to the ICCPR in particular.

4. For the USA, this means that it, too, should bring its activities in line with these standards. As a first step, US surveillance law and practice (in relation to surveillance of both US citizens and non-US/European citizens) must be made totally clear, and any divergence from those standards must be made public. Only that will allow for sensible discussions on how to bring those activities into line with international standards. Current US law as far as currently known is summarised below, at IV, and in Attachment 3.

II. European requirements:

(For more detail, see Attachment 1)

5. If an agency of any European State is given powers under the laws of that State to gather information on (the communications- or other data of) anyone, be that within Europe or not, then that activity must be regarded as being done “within the jurisdiction” of the State concerned.^{^[1]} This means that, in relation to any surveillance activity by any European State, on anyone, wherever they are, the State in question must comply with the minimum European standards, set out in Attachment 1, which are directly derived from the ECHR case-law.

6. Moreover, from a European perspective, any spying on Europeans and non-Europeans living in Europe, by any non-European State, anywhere in the world, should meet the same minimum European-constitutional and the similar UN standards, set out in Attachment 2.

7. Non-European national security agencies should not seek or gain direct access to any personal data held in Europe (e.g., by asking US companies to “pull” data from their Europe-based servers, or to allow US agencies to query the data in Europe, and hand over the results): that infringes the sovereignty of the relevant European States (PCIJ, Lotus judgment, pp. 18-19).[2] Instead, they should seek such access through bi- or multilateral assistance treaties, under arrangements similar to Mutual Legal Assistance Treaties (MLATs) for law enforcement agencies; and those treaties should in substance and process conform to the minimum European-constitutional and international standards.

8. Failure of a European State to prevent improper spying by non-European countries constitutes a breach of that country’s “positive obligations” under the ECHR. Active support for, complicity in, or even passive condoning of such spying would breach the State’s primary obligations under the ECHR.

9. In addition, European States and the European Union should ensure that personal data on Europeans and non-Europeans living in Europe, if held on US-based “cloud” servers, will be accessible to the US national security agencies only on the basis of clear and published provisions of treaty arrangements that also meet those European-constitutional and international standards.

III. USA requirements:

(For more detail, see Attachment 3)

10. The First and Fourth Amendments to the US Constitution in principle guarantee the right to free speech and freedom from unreasonable searches to US citizens. However, even domestically, this protection is weakened by the “third party” doctrine on personal data and the relaxed “pen/trap” rules on searches. Secret rulings of the FISA Court reportedly further erode these rights, arguably in unconstitutional ways. Those rulings are being challenged in the US courts. Here, we may note that current US law and practice, even with regard to spying on US citizens, falls short of European and international standards.

11. Moreover, it has become clear that non-US citizens outside the USA do not enjoy even the limited protections of the First and Fourth Amendments: they can be spied upon arbitrarily by US agencies, without any meaningful substantive or procedural limitations, in clear breach of international standards on privacy generally, and on privacy and freedom of expression on the Internet in particular. Under international human rights law, those guarantees should be afforded to “everyone” affected by the measures.

IV. How to address the issues: our demands

12. The ultimate aim should be for both the US and the European legal systems to offer high-level privacy/data protection to “everyone”, in line with the established European minimum standards (set out in Attachment 1), that are also in line with UN standards (set out in Attachment 2); and for those standards to be adhered to in practice by the USA, all European States, and the EU, whether acting independently or jointly.

To this end, we demand urgent action from both the US and the European institutions.

Demands for review and redress from the USA:

i. Clarity about the law, and honesty about practice:

13. We demand complete transparency in relation to the scope and detail of US spying activities, and of the bi- and multilateral arrangements between the USA and other States and international organisations, in particular “5EYES”[3], Atlantic and/or European ones, relating to this activity, under which data on the communications and Internet activities of European citizens are intercepted, held, recorded and/or monitored and analysed.

14. We demand complete clarity about the limitations of the US legal system, and in particular as concerns the apparent fact that it provides insufficient protection to US citizens, and effectively none to non-US citizens. Following such a full clarification, urgent measures should be taken to bring the US surveillance system fully into line with international human rights- and privacy/data protection standards.

ii. The way to achieve this:

15. While we appreciate the establishment of the PCLOB consultation, we do not believe that this is the appropriate forum or process to achieve the required full transparency, or that it will lead to US law and practice being brought fully into line with the requirements of international law.

16. To be more specific: we are joining US civil liberty organisations in calling on the US Congress to establish a properly staffed special investigatory committee, on the lines of the 1970s CHURCH Commission, with the power to subpoena witnesses and documents; and to make arrangements to ensure that European institutions, States and NGOs can fully participate in the investigation carried out by this special committee, and indeed in the drawing up of the mandate for this committee.

iii. The changes to be made

17. Senior European politicians have called for the extension of US legal protections afforded under US constitutional and federal law to (communications) data on US citizens, to (communications) data on European citizens held in the USA or accessed from the USA by US agencies, just as data on US citizens, held in Europe, is already protected under European human rights- and data protection law.

18. Reciprocity is indeed an important element in international relations. However, in the present context, this fails to recognise that while, in respect of their data, Europeans currently enjoy hardly any protection under US laws, the protection accorded to US citizens under those laws is also deficient, and falls below European and wider international minimum requirements. Raising the level of US legal protection for data on Europeans to the level of protection of data on US citizens therefore still leaves European citizens and US citizens subject to a regime that falls short of international standards. That is not enough.

19. We are joining civil liberty organisations in the USA in calling for fundamental changes in US law, to ensure proper protection under the law against non-transparent and undemocratic surveillance. New laws must be introduced at federal level to provide much stricter rules, open judicial warrants and rulings, and full democratic control, in accordance with international human rights and privacy/data protection standards. Specifically, we demand that when such laws are in place, they should afford equal protection to US and non-US citizens.

20. Until this is achieved, the USA cannot be said to offer “adequate” protection to data, in relation to any of the areas for which the European Commission has (wrongly) held it to offer such protection: the “Safe Harbor”, the disclosure of PNR data, and the making available of SWIFT data (see below, para. 29).

Demands for review and redress from Europe:

i. Clarity about the law, and honesty about practice:

21. European States are not blameless when it comes to surveillance: in spite of a much stronger legal regime on paper (under the ECHR), it appears that practice in some (perhaps many) European States also fall seriously short of the European-legal (ECHR) requirements. Several States, in particular the UK, also seem to have worked closely with the USA (in particular, in ECHELON) in establishing a global surveillance network that appears to blatantly violate European and international law. We need complete clarity about the laws in the EU- and Council of Europe Member States, and complete clarity about the treaties entered into by European States, and full, honest disclosure about the practices of the national security agencies and –bodies of the EU- and Council of Europe Member States too.

ii.

The way to obtain this: EU:

22. The European Parliament has a crucial role to play. We welcome the European Parliament’s decision to establish a committee of enquiry within the Civil Liberties Committee, and urge it to be broad, to encompass all the threats posed to the rights of European citizens by foreign and EU Member States’ surveillance activities.

23. We also – but very cautiously and with serious reservations – note the establishment of an EU-US “expert group” to look at these matters. However, we oppose the excessively limited mandate of this group, and demand full transparency about its composition and activities. We demand civil society involvement and complete openness for the work of this group. Without that, its findings and the arrangements it might propose are likely to be incomplete, will lack credibility and, consequently, will be unacceptable.

24.

Although this should be obvious, for the avoidance of any doubt, the EU should make clear, as a matter of urgency, that any disclosure of data on European citizens that is subject to European data protection law (such as financial or airline data, or Europol/Eurojust/etc. data) to, or any access to such data by, national Member States’ national security agencies (NSAs), and a fortiori by third country agencies, is subject to the European data protection rules governing the processing of such data.

Council of Europe

25. We note the fact that the Council of Europe, which Europe’s main human rights guarantor, is not excluded from addressing matters relating to national security that may affect the human rights of European citizens and indeed of “everyone” affected by measures of CoE Member States. On the contrary, the European standards set out in Attachment 1 have been developed by the European Court of Human Rights in what is now established case-law, applicable to all Council of Europe Member States (which includes all EU Member States), and indeed to the EU itself (albeit, for now, still indirectly, through “general principles of Union law” and the EU Charter).

26. Specifically, we call on the Secretary-General of the Council of Europe to exercise his power under Article 52 ECHR to demand of all CoE Member States full disclosure of “the manner in which [their] internal law[s] ensure[s] the effective implementation of” Article 8 of the ECHR in relation to surveillance of electronic communications- and Internet data by their national security agencies; and on the CoE Commissioner of Human Rights, PACE, and NGOs to be fully involved in this enquiry.

iii. The changes to be made

27. Until the full truth has been established, and full, appropriate remedial action has been taken to bring the activities of all relevant US agencies in line with international standards, there can be no close cooperation between US and European agencies, or between US and European State’s agencies on the previous, essentially unregulated basis.

28. Immediate changes: Given that, as noted above, in para. 20, in the light of the recent revelations, the USA cannot be said to offer “adequate” protection to data in relation to the “Safe Harbor”, the disclosure of PNR data, and the passing on of SWIFT data, the current arrangements are in clear and blatant breach of the primary law of the European Union and, consequently, the EU is legally obliged to immediately suspend all US-related European data protection “adequacy” decisions.

29. Changes to the General Data Protection Regulation: Pending adoption of adequate legislation in the USA, European data protection law should ensure that European citizens are clearly warned that, if they provide data to US companies, or to global Internet companies that have links to the USA, use servers in the USA, or are otherwise subject to US FISA and other surveillance orders, their data will not be safe from arbitrary, intrusive surveillance by US agencies. This is already proposed by senior EU officials and legislators in relation to the General Data Protection Regulation currently in the process of being adopted. We endorse that proposal.

30. New treaty arrangements on cooperation between national security agencies: The post-WWII treaties and arrangements on “national security” and “intelligence” cooperation (including the definitions of these matters) are totally outdated. We need a complete overhaul of the national and inter-State arrangements on “national security” and “intelligence” cooperation. The old treaties – UKUSA, 5EYES, NATO and others – should be openly discussed and reviewed, and fundamentally changed to bring them into line with the international standards we have adduced. Without that, we do not live in the free and democratic societies we are made to believe we live in.

– o – O – o –

EDRi and FREE are grateful to Professor Douwe Korff of London Metropolitan University for drafting this paper.

Rue Belliard 20, B-1040 Brussels,

Tel:+32 2 274 25 70

E-Mail: brussels@edri.org, http://www.edri.org

European Digital Rights (EDRi)

European Digital Rights is an association of 35 digital civil rights organisations from 21 European countries. We work together to defend civil rights in the information society.

11 Rue Darwin
1190 Bruxelles

E-Mail: edecapitani@gmail.com
http://www.eafsj.org

The Fundamental Rights European Experts Group (FREE Group)

The Fundamental Rights European Expert Group is an NGO whose focus is on monitoring, teaching and advocating in the European Union freedom security and justice related policies.

Attachment 1:

SUMMARY OF EUROPEAN HUMAN RIGHTS STANDARDS ON NATIONAL SECURITY SURVEILLANCE:

The case-law of the European Court of Human Rights under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) shows the following considerations and requirements of European human rights law relating to surveillance:[4]

– A system of secret surveillance for the protection of national security may undermine or even destroy democracy under the cloak of defending it.

– The mere existence of legislation which allows a system for the secret monitoring of communications entails a threat of surveillance for all those to whom the legislation may be applied.

– In view of these risks, there must be adequate and effective guarantees against abuse.

– The first of these guarantees is that such systems must be set out in statute law, rather than in subsidiary rules, orders or manuals. The rules must moreover be in a form which is open to public scrutiny and knowledge. Secret, unpublished rules in this context are fundamentally contrary to the Rule of Law; surveillance on such a basis would ipso facto violate the Convention.

The following are the “minimum safeguards” that should be enshrined in such (published) statute law, and adhered to in practice:

· the offences and activities in relation to which surveillance may be ordered should be spelled out in a clear and precise manner;

· the law should clearly indicate which categories of people may be subjected to surveillance;

· there must be strict limits on the duration of any ordered surveillance;

· there must be strict procedures to be followed for ordering the examination, use and storage of the data obtained through surveillance;

· there must be strong safeguards against abuse of surveillance powers, including strict purpose/use-limitations (e.g., preventing the too-easy disclosure of intelligence data for criminal law purposes) and strict limitations and rules on when data can be disclosed by NSAs to LEAs, etc.;

· there must be strict rules on the destruction/erasure of surveillance data to prevent surveillance from remaining hidden after the fact;

· persons who have been subjected to surveillance should be informed of this as soon as this is possible without endangering national security or criminal investigations, so that they can exercise their right to an effective remedy at least ex post facto; and

· the bodies charged with supervising the use of surveillance powers should be independent and responsible to, and be appointed by, Parliament rather than the Executive.

Under the ECHR, these principles must be applied to anyone who is affected by surveillance measures taken by any Council of Europe Member State under domestic law.

In addition, European States have a “positive obligation” to protect their citizens from surveillance contrary to the above, perpetrated by any other State. A fortiori, they are under a legal obligation not to actively support, participate or collude in such surveillance by a non-European State.

– o – O – o –

Attachment 2:

BRIEF NOTE ON WIDER UNITED NATIONS/INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS ON NATIONAL SECURITY SURVEILLANCE:

Attachment 1 above summarises the European Court of Human Rights’ standards set for “national security” surveillance. Here, we briefly note that the same standards are also reflected in law and guidance issued at the global level by the United Nations, and by other international organisations, albeit not always in the same detail.

The primary instrument in this respect is the UN International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR or “the Covenant”), the most important binding global human rights treaty, to which all European States and the USA (indeed, almost all UN Member States) are parties. It is applied and interpreted by the Human Rights Committee, which has issued important relevant guidance.

Further important guidance has been provided in the 1996 Johannesburg Principles on National Security, Freedom of Expression and Access to Information (drafted by Article 19 and other NGOs but endorsed by the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Opinion and Expression) and more recently in statements and reports by that Special Rapporteur and special rapporteurs from other international organisations. Also relevant is the guidance issued by the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (the OSCE), to which again all European countries and the USA (and Canada) are parties.

Here, it may suffice to note that all of these stress the same core principles as are stressed by the European Court of Human Rights:

– – “national security” must be defined narrowly (see the “Tenth Anniversary Joint Declaration” by the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Opinion and Expression, together with the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, the Organization of American States (OAS) Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression and the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression and Access to Information; also the Johannesburg Principles, Principle 2(a) as well as Principle 1.2);

– – any interference with the freedom to seek, receive and impart information by any medium (including the Internet), including e-communications- and Internet surveillance, must be based on “law”, i.e., on clear and specific, published legal rules (and published legal interpretations of the rules): an interference with privacy and communications can be “arbitrary” – and thus in breach of international human rights law, including the ICCPR – even if it is in accordance with domestic law;

– – the law must limit any such the interference to what is “necessary” and “reasonable” or “proportionate”; and

– – the law must provide for an “accessible and effective remedy” against the interference.

On all of the above, see General Comment 16 on Article 17 ICCPR, paras. 3 and 4; General Comment 31 on General Legal Obligations Imposed on States Parties to the Covenant, para. 15ff.; and the reports by the Special Rapporteur passim).

– – the requirements of “law”, “necessity” and “proportionality” also apply in relation to measures taken to protect national security (Johannesburg Principles, Principles 1.1.(a) & (b), 2(a) & (b)).

Moreover, in assessing the questions of “necessity” and “proportionality” in particular, the Human Rights Committee and the UN Special Rapporteurs will take into account exactly the same kinds of factors as are listed in the case-law of the European Court of Human Rights.

Two related matters deserve special mention in the present context: the application of international human rights law to the extraterritorial accessing (or “pulling”) of data from servers in another country; and the duty to extend the rights enshrined in the ICCPR to all individuals without distinction as to nationality or other status. Specifically:

– Article 2(1) of the ICCPR requires all States Parties “to respect and to ensure to all individuals within its territory and subject to its jurisdiction the rights recognized in the present Covenant, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.”

– In the view of the Human Rights Committee:

This means that a State party must respect and ensure the rights laid down in the Covenant to anyone within the power or effective control of that State Party, even if not situated within the territory of the State Party. … [T]he enjoyment of Covenant rights is not limited to citizens of States Parties but must also be available to all individuals, regardless of nationality or statelessness, such as asylum seekers, refugees, migrant workers and other persons, who may find themselves in the territory or subject to the jurisdiction of the State Party. (General Comment 31, emphasis added)

– Although the Committee has not yet issued any further views or general comments on the matter, it must be assumed that if a State gives itself legal powers to access (or “pull”) data on individuals, when those data are situated outside its physical territory, that State is “exercising jurisdiction” (to be specific: “enforcement jurisdiction”) extra-territorially, in the State where those data are located. As noted in the body of this paper with reference to the Lotus case, if this happens without the consent of the other State, it violates the sovereignty of that other State. Here, it should be noticed that that aside, such extra-territorial action by the first State would also mean that that State is asserting “jurisdiction” over those data. In respect of their data, the individuals concerned are made to be “subject to [the State’s] jurisdiction”.

– In any such extra-territorial cross-border accessing (or “pulling”) of data, the State in question must therefore comply with all the general requirements of the Covenant (clear, foreseeable “law”; “legitimate aim”, “necessity” and “proportionality”), and with the requirement of Article 2(1), that it affords the protection of Article 17 to the persons affected irrespective of their nationality or other status.

In sum: The UN standards are fully concordant with the European ones set out in Attachment 1.

– o – O – o –

Attachment 3:

SUMMARY OF UNITED STATES STANDARDS ON NATIONAL SECURITY SURVEILLANCE:

In the USA, communications data and personal information on US citizens (and on some minor categories of non-US citizens living in the USA) are in principle granted protection under the First and Fourth Amendments to the US Constitution, providing protection of free speech and freedom from unreasonable searches.

However:

1. There is no general, cohesive, broadly-applicable federal privacy law. Rather, there is only a largely incoherent and sectorally-based patchwork for federal and state laws, which provide serious privacy protection only in certain areas and respects. See: Chris Hoofnagle, Country Study on the USA, prepared for a wider EU study on New Challenges to Data Protection, at:

http://ec.europa.eu/justice/policies/privacy/docs/studies/new_privacy_challenges/final_report_country_report_B1_usa.pdf

2. The Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) allows for the monitoring of communications “meta” data (data on the devices involved in the communications, time, duration, location, etc., but not the contents of communications) on the basis of a “pen register or trap and trace device” warrant, that will be issued on the basis of simple certification by a government attorney that such information is “relevant” to an “ongoing criminal investigation”; there is no need to show “probable cause”, and there is no meaningful judicial oversight. This is because in Smith v. Maryland, the Supreme Court ruled that use of a pen register does not constitute a search, and is thus not protected under the Fourth Amendment. The surveillance carried out under ECPA, even on US citizens, is extensive and includes massive amounts of e-communications data. For further details, see: Douwe Korff, Presentation on behalf of EDRi at the EU – USA Privacy Conference, Washington DC, 19 March 2012, available at:

http://edri.org/files/korff120319.pdf

3. The PATRIOT Act and FISA Acts allow even more extensive surveillance over US citizens. Even on their face, the rules in these Acts fall far short of international-legal requirements. However, the rules have been even further weakened, to the extent that they now reportedly provide hardly any constraint at all, even in respect of US citizens, in relation to national security and “foreign intelligence” matters, by means of secret rulings by the secretive FISA Court. See: New York Times, 6 July 2013, In secret, court vastly broadens powers of NSA, at:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/07/us/in-secret-court-vastly-broadens-powers-of-nsa.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20130707&_r=1&

4. The constitutionality of these secret FISA Court rulings is doubtful, and they are being challenged in the US courts. See: http://www.aclu.org/national-security/fix-fisa-end-warrantless-wiretapping and http://epic.org/privacy/terrorism/fisa. 5.

In any case, and most worrying to Europeans, the First Amendment does not protect the relevant rights of non-US citizens not in the USA (so-called “excludable aliens”): “[T]he interests in free speech and freedom of association of foreign nationals acting outside the borders, jurisdiction, and control of the United States do not fall within the interests protected by the First Amendment.”

(DKT Memorial Fund Ltd. v. Agency for Int’l Dev., 1989, quoted in Chevron Corporation v. Steven Donziger et al., U.S. District Judge Kaplan order of June 25, 2013).

6. Non-US citizens not resident in the USA similarly do not benefit from the protection of the Fourth Amendment, which does no apply if the person affected by a “search” does not have a “significant voluntary connection with the United States (US v. Verdugo-Urquidez, 1979). Like the First Amendment, the Fourth Amendment only protect “the people”, i.e., US citizens and some eligible (US-resident) aliens.

7. Finally, the FISAA §1881a allows US agencies, including in particular the NSA, to capture and trawl through any data, including e-communications and Internet data, of or on any non-US citizen with essentially no constraints. All that is required is that the capturing and trawling does not inadvertently relate for more than 50% to US citizens, and that the data that are being looked for are “of interest” to “foreign affairs matters” of the USA: the exercise of these essentially arbitrary powers is not limited to serious offences or terrorism, or to threats to US (or US allies’) national security. See the report by Caspar Bowden et al. to the European Parliament, Fighting Cybercrime and Protection Privacy in the Cloud, 2012, and the subsequent article by him and Judith Rauhofer, Protecting their own: Fundamental rights implications for EU data sovereignty in the cloud, 2013, available at, respectively:

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/committees/en/studiesdownload.html?languageDocument=EN&file=79050

http://ssrn.com/abstract=2283175

In sum: The US Constitutional Amendments’ protections (as applied) and US Federal and State laws fall short of international standards. Under ECPA and the PATRIOT and FISA Acts, as further weakened by the secret rulings of the FISA Court, even US citizens enjoy little protection against widespread and intrusive surveillance by US national security agencies in relation to over-broadly-defined “intelligence” matters, in particular in relation to “meta” communications data and Internet data. In relation to US citizens, this may be unconstitutional. But non-US citizens outside the USA enjoy not even the (already too low) protection accorded to US citizens: they can effectively be spied upon arbitrarily, without any meaningful substantive or procedural limitations. Moreover, the US surveillance activities under FISAA in particular do not appear to be limited to matters of “national security”, properly (restrictively) defined, for neither US citizens or non-US citizens.

– o – O – o –

[1] Note that this is the case, even if the exercise of that jurisdiction would violate the sovereignty of another State, e.g., because it concerned data in another country (cf. the Lotus case, referred to in para. 7): the fact that the act was contrary to international law of course does not mean that the State perpetrating the act is not bound by its human rights obligations; that would be perverse. The point we make here is that in the circumstances described, the State is bound to comply with the European Convention on Human Rights, because the acts concerned are “within its jurisdiction”. While generally territorial in nature, this concept also covers acts carried out by State bodies within their home country (or territories of the State overseas) under domestic legislation that affects individuals in other countries.

[2] This is also the view of the vice-president of the European Commission, Viviane Reding, who issued a statement on 25 July 2013, saying: “The [EU’s new General Data Protection Regulation] will also provide legal clarity on data transfers outside the EU: when third country authorities want to access the data of EU citizens outside their territory, they have to use a legal framework that involves judicial control. Asking the companies directly is illegal. This is public international law.” See: http://techcrunch.com/2013/07/25/ireland-prism/ (emphasis added)

[3] The alliance of intelligence operations between the USA, UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand.

[4] See the cases of Klass v. Germany (Judgment of 6 September 1978), Weber and Saravia v. Germany (Admissibility Decision of 29 June 2006), Liberty and Others v. the UK (Judgment of 1 July 2008), and Kennedy v. the UK (Judgment of 18 May 2010). See in particular the summaries in Weber and Saravia, paras. 93 – 95, and in Kennedy, paras. 151 – 154 (which quote Weber and Saravia, paras 93 – 95, thus reemphasising that the approach there summarised is now regarded as settled case-law).

NEW!! : subscribe to the first summer school on the EAFSJ…

Roma, 8-11 July
Sala conferenze Fondazione Basso – via della Dogana Vecchia, 5 – Roma

The European Area of Freedom Security and Justice (EAFSJ): scope, objectives, actors and dynamics.

Aim: to take stock of the current state of EAFSJ and of its foreseeable evolution within the next multiannual program 2015-2019 (to be adopted under Italian Presidency at the beginning of the next legislature).
Lenght: 4 one day modules
Subscriptions: on line on the Fondazione Basso internet site : http://www.fondazionebasso.it
Participation fees:
Euro 480,00 (ORDINARY FEE).
Euro 200,00 (FOR STUDENTS / RESEARCHERS) .
(Bank Account of Fondazione Lelio e Lisli Basso – Banca Nazionale del Lavoro Ag. Senato Palazzo Madama: IBAN IT18I0100503373000000002777 ).
Subscriptions should be submitted before June 15th.The Summer School will take place only if a minimum number of subscribers is reached !For further information : tel. 0039.06.6879953 – basso@fondazionebasso.it
Languages: lessons will be mainly in Italian (some lessons will be in English and French), teaching material will be in Italian and/or English, French.
English/Italian translation will be available.
The programme is on the web-site of Fondazione Basso (www.fondazionebasso.it -Tel. 06.6879953 – email: basso@fondazionebasso.it)

July 8th
A Constitutional and Institutional perspective
09h00 am – 06h30 pm

Opening speeches:
Valerio Onida: Freedom, Security and Justice related policies from a constitutional perspective and in relation with international and supranational dimensions
Stefano Manservisi: After the Stockholm Programme : how to preserve the specificity of the European Area of freedom security and Justice related policies by integrating them in the general EU governance and legal framework?

Debate

Freedom Security and Justice as the core of the common constitutional european heritage
Protecting fundamental rights: the impact of the accession of the EU to the ECHR. A common European Constitutional Heritage arising from the Council of Europe and European Union European Courts. What can be expected from the Strasbourg Human Rights Court in areas related to the FSJ?.
Speaker: Giuseppe Cataldi

Freedom Security and Justice as the core of the common constitutional european heritage
Promoting fundamental rights: the European Charter and its impact on EU policies. Even if the Charter does not extend the EU competencies it is now a constitutional parameter to be taken in account not only by the European judges but also by the EU legislature, even for policies designed with a more limited scope.
Speaker:Ezio Perillo

Debate

Evolution and transformation of the principle of Primacy of EU law. Dialogue and mutual influence of European and national Constitutional Courts.
Fifty years after the landmark case of Van Gend en Loos and four years after the Lissabon-Urteil (Bundesverfassungsgericht judgment of 30.6.2009), the tensions between EU “limits” and national “counter-limits” could arise again notably in the EAFSJ area.
Speaker: Oreste Pollicino

The EAFSJ a cross road of European and national founding values (art. 2), as well as for fundamental and European citizenship rights. How manage the indivisibility of rights and a Member States differentiated integration ?
(Opt-in Opt-out Countries). How far can the EU impact on Member States internal legislation (Towards a “reverse Solange” mechanism)? How the EU and Council of Europe can influence national fundamental rights related policies
Speaker: Nicoletta Parisi

The EAFSJ as supranational constitutional area of democracy. From National State to the European Union: what kind of relation between national and european legal orders ?
Sixty years of EU integration have changed the concept of democracy and sovereignty. There is a metamorphosis in National State’ s traditional role and its constitutional elements such as territory, citizenship and sovereign power. The Kantian vision of a peaceful cosmopolitan project mirrors the category of EU citizenship arising in the EAFSJ. Today Habermas developed the concept of “Constitutional patriottism”, underlying a “constitutionalisation” of the European supranational area. What are the pro and cons of this EU perspective ? The post-Lisbon Treaty stressed that the EAFSJ is becoming the embryo of a European public sphere as well as of a first example of supranational democracy.
Speaker: Francesca Ferraro

Debate

July 9th
Institutional dynamics and EU practices
09h30 am – 06h30 pm

The EAFSJ before Lisbon. The intergovernmental cooperation. From “TREVI” via “Schengen” to Amsterdam. The first phase.
How formerly excluded EAFSJ related policies have been integrated into the EU framework. TREVI cooperation, the Schengen agreement (1985) and its 1990 Implementing Convention as well as the Dublin Convention on Asylum.
The emerging notion of supranational space in the Single European Act (1986). The mutual recognition principle in the Internal Market and in EAFSJ-related policies. The Schengen Acquis in the EU legal framework from Amsterdam to Lisbon. Opt-in and Opt-out Countries: the impact of differentiated integration. Schengen relevance and ECJ jurisprudence on the preservation of the Schengen system consistency. From cooperation to integration.
Speaker: Dino Rinoldi

Debate

The EAFSJ after Lisbon (1). How the EAFSJ specificity has been preserved by progressively integrating it in the ordinary EU (communitarized) legal institutional framework. The impact on the EU institutions and on the MS.
Dynamics and the role of the Institutions in promoting, negotiating and implementing the EAFSJ-related policies. European Council, European Parliament, Council of the European Union, Commission and Court of Justice interplaying in the EAFSJ. The preparatory work conducted behind the scene by the Commission Directorates General, the Council working bodies – COREPER, CATS, COSI – and the EP parliamentary committees
Speaker: Antonio Caiola

The EAFSJ after Lisbon (2) How democratic principles are fulfilled in the EAFSJ. The impact of the EP on legislative procedures.
The interparliamentary dialogue and the way how the EP and national parliaments play their role when verifying the subsidiarity and proportionality principles in the EAFSJ policies. The emerging role at EU level of “political families” represented at national European and international level (European political parties, EP political groups, national parties).
Speaker: Emilio De Capitani

Debate

The EAFSJ after Lisbon (3). How EU policies are framed and implemented at national level. How cooperation, mutual recognition and harmonisation are implemented
How EAFSJ policies are implemented at national level. Problems and opportunities arising notably when implementing the mutual recognition of other EU countries’ measures. How intertwined are the EU and national administration in the EAFSJ related policies. Is there complementarity between EU and National strategies? The EU financial levy as a facilitator of mutual EU-national coordination. The emerging role of EU Authorities and Agencies as a support and meeting space also for national administrations (Ombudsman, FRA, EDPS, FRONTEX, EASO, EMCDDA, EUROPOL, OLAF, CEPOL, EUROJUST, …).
Speaker: Lorenzo Salazar

Debate

July 10th
An European space of freedom and rights
09h30 am- 06h30 pm

The EAFSJ after Lisbon (4) Placing the individuale at the heart of EU activities
How EU legislation implements the principles of equality and non-discrimination. The ECJ jurisprudence and the phenomenon of reverse discrimination. EU citizenship-related jurisprudence. Judicial action at national and European level founded on the EU Charter. Infringement of EU founding values and fundamental rights as possible exceptions to the mutual recognition obligations? Fundamental Rights Agency.
Speaker: Valentina Bazzocchi

The EU evolving framework of Transparency, access to documents, principle of good administration, and of classified information
After Lisbon a more transparent independent and efficient EU administration can be founded on Arts 15 and 298 of the TFEU as well as Arts 41 and 42 of the European Charter. However the close intertwining of the EU and the Member States has created a hybrid system of European Classified Information (EUCI), which is particularly relevant in the EAFSJ policies. How do European and national institutions implement the EU principles? How is the principle of good administration secured? What role should the EU Ombudsman play?
Speaker: Deirdre Curtin

Protection of Personal Data. The EU reform.
After the Lisbon Treaty and the merger of the so-called first and third pillars, protection of personal data can be framed in a globally consistent manner. Informational self determination, protection against possible abuses by the private sector as well as by public sector (law enforcement authorities) can now be framed at European level by taking stock of the lessons learned at national and international level (Council of Europe, OECD). How to preserve the role of national authorities and of the new coordinating body.
Speaker: Vanna Palumbo

Freedom of movement border integrated management
Freedom of movement of European citizens as well as of third country nationals in the EU remains a central and controversial issue. The integrated external border management is progressively framed at legislative level (borders, visas..) and implemented at operational level also thanks to the emerging role of Frontex and of the new European networks (SIS II – VIS). New opportunities as well as risks emerge in the definition of the EU-Member State management of internal and external borders
Speaker: Luisa Marin

Debate

European Migratory policies
Objectives, legal framework and operational setting of the EU-Member State policies. Five years after the European Pact on Asylum and Migration (2008), what lessons can be drawn for the next (2015-2019) multiannual programme? What improvements can be foreseen for the EU migration governance at central and national level? How are the Member States implementing the EU legislation? What are the main external aspects of the EU migration policy?
Speaker: Henry Labayle

The European common asylum system (and of EASO and EURODAC)
After the first generation of EU “minimum” rules the EU has now established the Common European Asylum System foreseen by Art. 18 of the Charter and Art 78 of the TFEU by taking account of the jurisprudence of the Luxembourg and Strasbourg Courts. At national level high standards should be granted to avoid the problems found for instance with Greece when implementing the Dublin system. The principle of solidarity still seems to be underexploited. Attention should be paid to the new role of EASO (Reg. (EU) No 439/2010) as well as to the implementation of the EURODAC system.
Speaker: Patricia Van de Peer

Debate

July 11
An European space of security and justice
09h30 am -06h30 pm

Judicial cooperation in civil matters; complement of the freedom of movement?
Judicial cooperation in civil matters has been one of the most dynamic domains after the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty. Enhanced cooperation took place in matrimonial matters and intellectual property. Special attention will be reserved for the recently revised Brussels I Regulation (which abolished the “exequatur” procedure) as well as for the new Regulations on succession and wills and on mutual recognition of protection measures in civil matters.
Speaker: Filomena Albano

Internal security strategy: crisis prevention and management.
Special attention will be paid to the implementation of the 2010 European Internal Security Strategy and its impact on the cooperation between the EU institutions and agencies as framed by the “Policy Cycle” for the 2013-2017 period. There will also be a presentation of the implementation of PRUM cooperation and of the “availability principle” as well as the way how security- and intelligence-related information is exchanged notably within the framework of the so-called “Swedish Initiative”. The role played by COSI, Europol and of the internal security fund will be presented and debated together with the impact of the up-coming “Lisbonisation” of EU measures adopted before the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty
Speaker: Sandro Menichelli

Debate

Judicial Cooperation in criminal matters
How judicial cooperation in criminal matters has been developed between countries of different legal traditions (civil and common law). Problems and opportunities arising at each level of cross-border cooperation (open coordination, mutual recognition, legislative harmonisation). The European jurisprudence (Strasbourg and Luxembourg Courts) as well as the impact of the EU Charter. The implementation of the first post-Lisbon measures and impact of the Lisbonisation of former third pillar measures in this domain. Preserving the independence of the judiciary: towards European-wide judiciary quality evaluation systems.
Speaker: Luca De Matteis

The European Public Prosecutor: a pattern also for Member States?
The OLAF Reform and the Eurojust “Lisbonisation” are intermediate phases towards the creation of the European Public Prosecutor’s office (EPPO) (Art. 86 TFEU). The latter will be empowered to bring action also before national courts. The European legislation will determine the general rules applicable to the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, the conditions governing the performance of its functions, the rules of procedure applicable to its activities, as well as those governing the admissibility of evidence, and the rules applicable to the judicial review of procedural measures taken by it in the performance of its functions. What will be the impact, the risks and opportunities arising from the creation of this new European Institution?
Speaker: Claudia Gualtieri

How to empower the EU citizens when EAFSJ are shaped and implemented ?
Round Table with the Intervention of Paul Nemitz, Antonie Cahen, Robert Bray Tony Bunyan

Final Debate

PRESENTATION OF THE COURSE

The Treaty of Lisbon and the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, which entered into force on 1 December 2009, constituted an important step both at the legal level and at the political level in the evolution of the European Union. The aim of the EU now is not only “… to promote peace, its values and the well-being of its peoples”, having presided over, since the end of the Second World War, the longest ever period of peace between European States, but also to achieve “… an area of freedom, security and justice with respect for fundamental rights and the different legal systems and traditions of the Member States.”

After the Treaty of Lisbon, the policies already provided for in the Maastricht Treaty within the framework of the so-called “third pillar” and originally focused mainly on intergovernmental cooperation and cooperation between administrations, are now to evolve into European “common policies” directly towards the interests of the individual, who is placed “at the heart of European integration.”

It is a Copernican revolution in so far as the Union is called not only to offer “… its citizens an area of freedom, security and justice without internal frontiers, in which the free movement of persons is ensured in conjunction with appropriate measures with respect to external border controls, asylum, immigration and the prevention and combating of crime” (Art. 3 TEU and Title V TFEU) but also to promote (and not only protect) fundamental rights and prevent all forms of discrimination (Art. 10 TFEU) and strengthen EU citizenship (Arts 18-25 TFEU) and with it the democratic principles on which it is based (Title II TEU).

The fact that the competences related to the ASFJ are now “shared” with the Member States (Art. 4 TEU) and are to be focused on the rights of the person brings about a daily interaction between the national and the European level, bringing into play national and European values, rights and objectives.

The process of reciprocal hybridization between the nascent European model and traditional national models is anything but politically painless, as the experience of almost thirty years of Schengen cooperation shows.

The aim of this Summer School is to assess the progress and difficulties encountered by the European institutions and the Member States in implementing the Charter of Fundamental Rights and the objectives set by the European Council in the “Stockholm Programme” of 10 December 2009.

Based on this evaluation, we intend to shed light on the possible priority bearing in mind that:
– it will be necessary to adjust the secondary legislation of the European Union in the light of the values and principles which are now enshrined in the Lisbon Treaty and the Charter of Fundamental Rights (“Lisbonisation”);
– we shall be in the final phase of the accession of the EU to the European Convention on Human Rights;
– at the beginning of the next legislature, we will be entering into a new phase in the European judicial area with the negotiations on the establishment of the European Public Prosecutor and the transition to the ordinary legislative procedure with regard to measures of police and judicial cooperation in criminal matters adopted before the entry into force of the Treaty (the transitional arrangements end on 1 December 2014);
– Member States which have hitherto enjoyed special treatment (Ireland, Denmark and the United Kingdom in particular) should have clarified their position with respect to the new phase of the ASFJ and the Schengen cooperation.

In the course of the next legislature it will also be necessary to promote greater consistency between European and national strategies related to the European area of freedom, security and justice. Just as in the economic sphere, the divergence of national public policies has put at risk the credibility of the common currency, the diversity of standards for the protection of the rights in Member States is straining mutual trust, the application of the principle of mutual recognition and the very credibility of the nascent “European model”. The strengthening of the operational solidarity between Member States’ administrations – which is being developed for example within the framework of Schengen cooperation – must be accompanied by legislative, operational and financial measures that implement solidarity between European citizens and third-country nationals on the territory of the Union.

In this perspective, Italy may play an important role as the new multi-annual programme for 2015-2019 is to be adopted by the second half of 2014 under the Italian Presidency.

Speakers:

Academics:
Valerio Onida, Former President of the Italian Constitutional Court
Giuseppe Cataldi, Pro-rettore Università L’Orientale (Napoli)
Oreste Pollicino, Public comparative law Professor (Università Bocconi – Milano)
Nicoletta Parisi, EU Law Professor (Università Catania)
Francesca Ferraro, Visiting Professor (Università L’Orientale – Napoli)
Dino Rinoldi, International Law Professor (Università Cattolica – Piacenza)
Valentina Bazzocchi, PHD EU Law (Alma Mater Università Bologna)
Deirdre Curtin, Professor of European Law (University of Amsterdam – NL),
Luisa Marin, Assistant Professor of European Law (University of Twente – NL)
Henri Labayle, Professeur de Droit international et européen (Université de Pau et des
pays de l’Adour – France)

Representatives and officials of European and national administrations:
Ezio Perillo (European Civil Service Tribunal)
Stefano Manservisi DG of the Commission DG Home
Paul Nemitz Director at the Commission DG Justice
Antoine Cahen, Patricia Van Den Peer, Claudia Gualtieri (European Parliament)
Filomena Albano, Luca De Matteis, Lorenzo Salazar (Italian Justice Ministery)
Sandro Menichelli (UE Italian Permanent Representation )
Vanna Palumbo (Garante Privacy IT)

Representatives of Civil Society:
Tony Bunyan, Director of Statewatch,Emilio De Capitani, FREE Group Secretary and Visiting Professor (Università L’Orientale – Napoli)

WikiLeaks: an increased call for transparency

WikiLeaks’ latest release of classified documents raised deep concern among the United States (US) Government and put into question whether the freedom of expression, as established in the First Amendment of the US Constitution, should be object of revision by amending the Espionage Act of 1917.

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. said that a criminal investigation of WikiLeaks is continuing even after Mr. Assange, a 39-year-old Australian, was released on bail after surrendering to British authorities on 7th December in connection with a case in Sweden in which two women have accused him of rape and other sexual crimes.

In the meantime the Air Force and the Library of Congress have blocked the WikiLeaks website.

The repeated calls for criminal prosecutions to the funder of WikiLeakes raise a whole series of questions related to the most fundamental questions about freedom of expression and about what the public can know about the actions of its own government and therefore its level of accountability.

The recent US hearing on WikiLeaks, “Hearing on the Espionage Act and the Legal and Constitutional Issues Raised by WikiLeaks“, which took place on the 16th December 2010 took into considerations, among others, these issues and will be therefore be the main source used for the following analysis.

The background

As of 3 January 2011, 1,997 individual cables had been released by WikiLeaks, which has planned to publish 251,287 cables, originating from 274 embassies, dating from 28th December 1966 to 28th February 2010.

According to WikiLeaks’ website the cables are divided in:

15, 652 secret

101,748 confidential

133,887 unclassified.

According to Judge Louie Gohmert the release of documents “threatens our national security, our relations with foreign governments, and continued openness from embassy officials and foreign sources”.

However, Mr. Gates while defining the leaks embarrassing, considers that they have had modest consequences for US policy, so far. Also Thomas Blanton pointed out that although most international affairs scholars consider the cables useful, so far nothing in the diplomatic cables compares to the impact on public policy in 2004 from the leak of the Abu Ghraib photographs, of the secret prisons, or the torture memos, or the Pentagon Papers’ contribution to the end of the Vietnam war.

So, although embarrassing, the cables do not represent a clear danger to the US security and, since unpopularity does not represent a crime as House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers jr pointed out, it is not clear what law has been violated by WikiLeaks.

The existing difficulties in finding a shared opinion of what information is indeed sensitive and what is not, have led to the over-classification of material, as several panellists pointed out during the hearing. In particular, Thomas Blanton, Director of the National Security Archive George Washington University, stated that current and former officials estimate that between 50% to 90% of what is classified is either over-classified or should not be classified at all.

This opinion was further re-affirmed by former Governor of New Jersey Tom Kean, who commenting on the Committee on House Judiciary review on the US Government’s most sensitive records about Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda after 9/11, observed that 75% of what he read that was classified should not have been so. Finally, President Reagan`s National Security Council secretary Rodney McDaniel estimated in 1991 that only 10% of classification was for “legitimate protection of secrets”.

The over-classification of the U.S. government’s national security information means that thousands of soldiers, analysts and officers need access to huge quantities of classified information and this necessary access makes it impossible to effectively protect truly vital secrets, said Mr John Conyers. Harvard law professor Jack Goldsmith, who served President George W. Bush as head of the Office of Legal Counsel at the Justice Department, stated that: “a root cause of the perception of illegitimacy inside the government that led to leaking is, ironically, excessive government secrecy.” As Potter Stewart asserted “When everything is classified, then nothing is classified, and the system becomes one to be disregarded by the cynical or the careless, and to be manipulated by those intent on self-protection or self-promotion.”(…) The hallmark of a truly effective internal security system would be the maximum possible disclosure (…) secrecy can best be preserved only when credibility is truly maintained.”

Of course, nobody is in favour of leaks that put people at risk. But as Mr Bill Delahunt (who serve on the Foreign Affairs Committee and had the opportunity to chair the committee on oversight) pointed out, currently there is an overwhelming over-classification of material which calls for a review of the classification procedures.

Thus, if a great amount of information which is currently classified should not have been classified in the first place, what is the liability of WikiLeaks and more in general what are the obligations that an individual not employed by the Government has towards the latter to keep its own secrets?

To answer to these questions it might be useful to compare this situation to the client-attorney relation, explained Professor Geoffrey Stone, former dean of the University Chicago Law School: “The client is free to keep matters secret by disclosing them to no one. He is also free to disclose certain matters to his attorney who is under a legal obligation to respect the confidentiality of a client’s disclosures. In this sense, the attorney is sort of like the government employee. If the attorney violates the privilege by revealing the client’s confidences say to a reporter, then the attorney can be punished for doing so. But the newspaper cannot be constitutionally punished for disseminating the information.”

However, the proposed Shield Act would amend the Espionage Act of 1917 to make it a crime for any person knowingly and wilfully to disseminate, in any manner prejudicial to the safety or interest of the United States any classified information (…) concerning the human intelligence activities of the United States or (…) concerning the identity of a classified source or informant” working with the intelligence community of the United States.” The proposed Shield Act might be constitutional as applied to a government employee who “leaks” such classified material, but it is unconstitutional as applied to other individuals who might publish or otherwise disseminate such information.

On the basis of the principle of freedom of expression, which stems from the first amendment of the US constitution states:

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

Furthermore, the Supreme Court in the case Bartnicki v. Vopper, held that when an individual receives information from a source who has obtained it unlawfully, that individual may not be punished for publicly disseminating the information, absent the need of the highest order.

Therefore, the suppression of public speech must be the Government’s last rather than first resort in addressing a potential problem. The Government should demonstrate the existence of a clear and present danger before limiting such a right. If there are other means by which government can prevent or reduce the danger, it must exhaust those before it can even entertain the prospect of suppressing the freedom of speech.

On the contrary, Judge Ghomert was of the opinion that nowadays we are confronted with different tools of mass communication compared to the one that were foreseen when the First amendment was written and therefore the boundaries of free speech should be re-thought, so as to balance this freedom with the Government’s need to protect some information.

However, there are very good reasons for the Government to demonstrate a clear and present danger before reducing the freedom of speech and these reasons do not vary depending on different communication tools:

1) The simple fact that the dissemination of such information might in the words of the proposed Act “in any manner prejudice the interests of the United States,” does not mean that the harm outweighs the benefit of publication, as Chairman Conyers noted. 2) A case by case balancing of harm against benefit would be unwieldy, unpredictable, and impracticable. Clear rules are essential in the realm of free speech. That is why the Government has so much authority to restrict the speech of its own employees, rather than insisting that in every case the government demonstrate that the harm outweighs the benefit.

3) There are great pressures that lead both government officials, and even the public, to overstate the potential harm of publication in times of national anxiety. A strict clear and present danger standard serves as a barrier to protect us against that danger, Mr Conyers concluded.

It is evident that, in order to protect effectively real vital information, the classification system should be put under review. Indeed the leaks underline the weaknesses derived from a system not sufficiently transparent.

By focusing on prosecuting WikiLeaks, not only there is a risk of violating one of the fundamental constitutional freedom, but also there is a clear risk of limiting the right of citizens to hold accountable their own Governments democratically elected.

As Mr Delhaunt put it: “Secrecy is the trademark of totalitarism. To the contrary, transparency and openness is what democracy is about”.

The European Union and State Secrets: a fully evolving institutional framework

Many contemporary debates surround the issue of the treatment of confidential information and state secrets both in the United States (1) and the European Union (2) and questions have also been raised over the WikiLeaks phenomenon. It therefore seems timely to try to shed some light on the way confidential information is handled by the European Union institutions, especially since we now have the entry into force of the Treaties of the European Union, on the Functioning of the European Union and the now binding Charter of Fundamental Rights.

Clearly, it is not technically appropriate to talk about state secrets in the case of the European Union, since the latter remains an international organisation entrusted by its Member States to intervene only in those areas established by the founding treaties and to pursue those objectives established by the funding treaties (3). Nevertheless, the European order now spans such a wide range of competences and has developed such a direct relation between citizens and the institutions that the need for transparency and political accountability is as essential for the European Union as it is for its Member States.

As long as the institutions’ work was covered by professional secrecy, there was minimal risk of leaks and any undesirable impact at the national level during the negotiating phases of European measures. Problems related to a different perception of transparency/secrecy were paradoxically raised with the process of democratisation of the European institutions which, due to Maastricht, has been accompanied with the widening of competences. Additionally, and more importantly, the Amsterdam Treaty ensured that the right of access to documents of the Parliament, Council and Commission (art. 255 TEC) was recognised as a fundamental right of European citizens (and of those legally residing in the EU).

In theory, a fundamental right can only be limited by law (4), but the institutional framework resulting from the implementing measures of article 255 ( EC Regulation 1049/01) is a long way from defining a coherent regime of this sensitive topic. To obtain such a result it would have been necessary to mediate between two different juridical traditions which divided (and still divide) some countries; indeed, Northern Europe is traditionally more favourable to transparency needs whereas some southern countries prioritise the efficiency of the decision making process ahead of transparency (5).

This unresolved conflict is reflected in Regulation 1049/01, which regulates for two different regimes, respectively one of a general nature and one of a specific nature. The general one establishes transparency and the right of access to information as the general rule to which it is possible to derogate only under the provisions established by art. 4. Furthermore, it stems from the will of the author who submitted the document to the institution (whether that be another institution, a Member State or a third party). The ratio behind the suppression of the “author rule” as confirmed by the Court (6), is evidently that of avoiding that additional exceptions are added to those already foreseen by law (7), which would have the effect of nullifying the answer to the citizen requesting the access to a document or information (and therefore being incompatible with the principle of certainty of law).

Nonetheless, the general rule of Regulation 1049/01 also presents a significant exception to article 9 (8), which establishes a specific regime for the so-called “sensitive documents” defined as “… documents originating from the institutions or the agencies established by them, from Member States, third countries or International Organisations, classified as ‘TRÈS SECRET/TOP SECRET’, ‘SECRET’ or ‘CONFIDENTIEL’ (9) in accordance with the rules of the institution concerned, which protect essential interests of the European Union or of one or more of its Member States in the areas covered by Article 4(1)(a), notably public security, defence and military matters.

The regime established in Article 9 is evidently a “lex specialis”, which is only applicable to the external affairs and defence matters (the former “second pillar “). However, it is also an incomplete regime because Regulation 1049/01 does not specify (as foreseen in art. 255 TEC which now is replaced by art. 15 TFEU) the general principles regarding the classification of “sensitive” documents. Although the legislator has abdicated its role and referred the decision to the institutions internal regulations, defining such a rule is not a mere organisational matter.

The official justification for this attempt at a ‘quick-fix’ in 2001 was related to the approaching deadline for the approval of the regulation, as foreseen by the Treaty. The real reason, however, was the impossibility to reach an agreement between the European Parliament and the Council over the adoption of NATO standards at the European level.

Due to article 9 and the fact that that it refers to the internal regulation of the institutions, some measures were introduced through the back door, since the internal regulations of the Council and the Commission (11) were accompanied by the need to have the author’s consent when classifying the document as “sensitive”(12).

In this way, not only have NATO standards become de facto the standards of reference for EU classified information (13), although (for the moment) limited to external and defence matters, but it also re-establishes the pre-Maastricht regime for EU citizens and institutions such as the European Parliament and the Court of Justice. Indeed, these actors cannot refer to the “right” of access to information, because the holding institution can always oppose it in the name of non compatibility with NATO standards of internal security regulations (14) or more simply, because the member state or third party (author or co-author) of the classified document does not give its consent to the transmission of the document.

The result is the existence of a conspicuous number of agreements between on one side the Council and the Commission, and the other side third countries, concluded on the basis of an unstable institutional framework (15). Recently, the same agreements have also been concluded by EU agencies such as Europol, Eurojust or Frontex (and therefore outside of the so-called second pillar), on the basis of which the institution and/or the agency (although negotiating on behalf of the European Union) (16) accept that the third country may oppose access to information to EU citizens and even the Parliament and Court.

It is therefore legitimate to wonder about the extent to which this situation is compatible with a European order, allegedly based on the principle of representative democracy (17), fundamental rights and citizenship (18), especially following the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon. The issue becomes even more urgent in view of the passage to the ordinary legislative regime and to the (almost) total control of the Court of sensitive matters such as police, internal security and intelligence cooperation (which are increasingly labelled as classified information).

Without effective transparency, risks of abuse or “policy laundering” become too high. This risk is also linked to the reproduction of unwanted situations where information in the field of defence and external affairs (Chapter 2 of the EU Treaty) are kept hidden, not only from the European Parliament for the reasons illustrated above, but also form the national parliaments as the information is regarded as a “European” secret. In this context, the national parliaments arguably receive the same level of access as a third country.

Therefore, the result would be the complete absence of a counterbalance mechanism which should characterise every democratic system and which would be strengthened by these security and defence policies under the formal coverage of European “executive privilege”, which not even the President of the United States of America has ever dreamt.

Luckily, the situation is less worrisome in other parts of the treaties, for example where it is established that the European Parliament must ratify international agreements. In this case, the same Treaty foresees that the Parliament “shall be immediately and fully informed at all stages of the procedure” (art. 218 par. 10 TFEU). This should effectively prohibit the Commission (negotiating the agreements) and the Council (concluding the agreements) from being able to make excuses in order to not reveal all the information.

Indeed, the European Parliament has made reference to these provisions throughout the negotiations on SWIFT, ACTA and the access of the EU to the European Convention on Human Rights. This initiative raised disconcert from the Council and Commission, who obviously realise how difficult it is to maintain two different regimes in the field of classified information depending on whether the negations of the agreements are conducted on the basis of Article 218 TFEU or on the basis of the competences in the field of security and defense (which are based on Article. 9 of Regulation 1049/01 and/or the internal organisation competence of the Council, Commission and security agencies). If in theory it is possible, although difficult, to differentiate between these two agreements at the European level, it turns into a “probation diabolica” to explain to a third country why matters such as the fight against terrorism may sometimes refer to an ordinary regime (article 218 TFEU) or to an extraordinary regime (art. 9 1049/01)

The process of re-negotiating the inter-institutional agreements concerning the European Parliament’s access to classified information is ongoing. A first draft agreement will be reviewed by the Committee on Constitutional Affairs of the European Parliament and a second one will take place between the European Parliament and the Council to modify the 2002 agreement applying Regulation 1049/01 (20).

The problem is that some expression of this agreement (not ratified yet) seem to extend the preventive consent to de-classify the document given by the author from the exceptions of defence and security issues to all the matters of competences of the European Union. Such an iron grip would put the European Parliament in a position leading to its abdication (21) of the right/duty to exercise the democratic control foreseen by the treaty.

However, the issue remains undefined and contradicting signals are coming from the High Representative. This is important as the High Representative is about to adopt a declaration accompanying the decision which establishes the organisation and functioning of the European external service which “ (…) will be applied mutatis mutandis by the High Representative for agreements falling under her area of responsibility, where the consent of the Parliament is required. The European Parliament will be, in accordance with Article 218 (10) TFEU, immediately and fully informed at all stages of the procedure, including for agreements concluded in the area of CFSP.”

It remains to be seen whether the European institutions will be able to finally overcome the long-lasting inconsistencies of the Regulation 1049/01 by establishing a European matter also in the field of the state secrets or whether, by carrying on the current, judicially confusing paths, once again the task of clarification will be left to the Court.

EDC

NOTE

(1) See the fundamental investigation of the Washington Post on the possible abuses of the documents’ classification from the USA administration since 9/11.

(2) See the current debate at the COPASIR concerning the revision of the Italian law on the “services” and the treatment of the state secret (L. 124/2007)

(3) Concept reaffirmed by the German Constitutional Court in several occasions (including 2009 with the famous Lisbon Urteil) the Union cannot gives itself different or wider competences than those granted by the Member State.

(4) As foreseen by the Member States’ constitutions and by the ECHR.

(5) This is an expression also used by article 207 of the “old” EC Treaty but that the Council has always interpreted as the conditions that allow the representatives of the Member States to change their negotiating positions in complete discretion according to circumstantial needs)

(6) This principle has been reaffirmed also recently by the Court of Justice

Case C‑64/05 P Kingdom of Sweden vs Commission of the European Communities (see: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:62005J0064:EN:HTML )

(7) In the case of a member State it could be requested to see applied its own national regime and in the case of a third country needs

(8See: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2001:145:0043:0048:IT:PDF

(9) Strangely enough the Italian version of the Regulation 1049/01 only refers to the category of the “confidential” documents.

(10) It is “…public interest safeguards, namely:— public order, — safeguard of military matters — International relations, — financial, monetary or economy policy of the Community or Member states

(11)See Council decision 2001/264/CE 19 march 2001 adopting internal security regulation OJ n°101, 11.04.2001 modified following the entry into force of the Lisbon treaty.

(12) The “considering” 15 of the regulation invited the Member states to respect in the name of the principle of loyal cooperation the classifications established by the European institutions so as to avoid leaks related to National security matters “ Even though it is neither the object nor the effect of this Regulation to amend national legislation on access to documents, it is nevertheless clear that, by virtue of the principle of loyal cooperation which governs relations between the institutions and the Member States, Member States should take care not to hamper the proper application of this Regulation and should respect the security rules of the institutions.

(13) European Classified Information (EUCI)

(14) For obvious reasons and given the peculiar nature and constitutional mission of the European Parliament or the court of Justice.

(15) See as a last example the agreement between the EU and Liechtenstein concerning the security procedures for the Exchange of classified information http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2010:187:0002:0004:EN:PDF

(16) Art. 3 of the above mentioned agreement establishes that “the European Council, the Council of the European Union (hereinafter referred to as ‘the Council’), the General Secretariat of the Council, the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, the European External Action Service (hereinafter: ‘the EEAS’) and the European Commission. For the purposes of this Agreement, these institutions and entities shall be referred to as ‘the EU»

(17) Artt. 9-12 of the TEU in specific art. 10

(18) Artt.18-24 TFEU

(19). See for example the regime for the treatment of classified information foreseen by the Decision of the Council establishing Europol http://eur-lex.europa.eu/JOHtml.do?uri=OJ:L:2009:121:SOM:EN:HTML and the implementing measures concerning the exchange of information with third countries: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2009:325:0006:0011:EN:PDF. These provisions, which entered into force in January 2010 should be interested on the basis of the regime before the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty in virtue of the transitory provisions foreseen by protocol n° 36.

(20) The text of the inter-institutional agreement EP-Council is available at: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:C:2002:298:0001:0003:EN:PDF

(21) Obviously it would be only a de fact abdication given that the inter-institutional agreement cannot modify a juridical situation defined by a treaty. However, the signal is worrying as much as the stall of the revision of Regulation 1049/01 and the juridical vacuum under which the EU institutions (and agencies) are now operating, since they should have defined their own norms in the field of transparency/confidentiality on the basis of principles that still need to be defined after Lisbon.

(22) See in specific the declaration f the high represntative:http://register.consilium.europa.eu/pdf/it/10/st12/st12401-ad01.it10.pdf ) “.. The results of the ongoing negotiations on the Framework Agreement between the European Parliament and the Commission on negotiations of international agreements will be applied mutatis mutandis by the HR for agreements falling under her area of responsibility, where the consent of the Parliament is required. The European Parliament will be, in accordance with Article 218 (10) TFEU, immediately and fully informed at all stages of the procedure, including for agreements concluded in the area of CFSP.. (…) 4. The present system of providing confidential information on CSDP missions and operations (through the IIA 2002 ESDP EP Special Committee) will be continued. The HR can also provide access to other documents in the CFSP area on a need to know basis to other MEPs, who, for classified documents, are duly security cleared in accordance with applicable rules, where such access is required for the exercise of their institutional function on the request of the AFET Chair, and, if needed, the EP President. The HR will, in this context, review and where necessary propose to adjust the existing provisions on access for Members of European Parliament to classified documents and information in the field of security and defence policy (2002 IIA ESDP). Pending this adjustment, the HR will decide on transitional measures that she deems necessary to grant duly designated and notified MEPs exercising an institutional function easier access to the above information..”

Action Plan on the Stockholm Programme released by Statewatch

European Commission: Stockholm Programme: Statewatch Analysis: Action Plan on the Stockholm Programme: A bit more freedom and justice and a lot more security (pdf) by Tony Bunyan: “The “harnessing of the digital tsunami” as advocated by the EU Future Group and the surveillance society, spelt out in Statewatch’s “The Shape of Things to Come” is embedded in the Commission’s Action Plan as it is in the Stockholm Programme….There is no mention of the European Security Research Programme (ESRP). Much of the technological development is being funded under the 1.4 billion euro security research programme. See: Statewatch/TNI report: Neoconopticon: EU security-industrial complex.”

– Statewatch Briefing: European Commission: Action Plan on the Stockholm Programme (pdf) Comments by Professor Steve Peers, University of Essex – Full-text: Communication from the Commission: Delivering an area of freedom, security and justice for Europe’s citizens Action Plan Implementing the Stockholm Programme (COM 171/2010, pdf)

http://www.statewatch.org/

Brandeis in Italy: The Privacy Issues in the Google Video Case

Reports of the recent decision by an Italian court to issue suspended sentences against three Google exes for posting a video of a young person with downs syndrome being taunted has sparked a flurry of First Amendment concern. The opinion of reporters, at least in the U.S., has been nearly unanimous — “What were they thinking??” “This will kill the Internet.” “The Italians just don’t get it.”

There is no published opinion yet, so this is very much a first impression based on a quick review of the law in the case, but I was struck by the similarity of the Italian decision with the birth of the right of privacy in the United States.

Continue reading “Brandeis in Italy: The Privacy Issues in the Google Video Case”

Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA): towards a legalised regime of privacy invasion?

The European Union, represented by the European Commission, is negotiating – since 2007- a Multilateral Agreement on Anti-Counterfeiting Trade (ACTA) with nine other countries, including the United States of America, Australia, Canada, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, and Switzerland.

The purpose of such an agreement is to strengthen the enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) and to combat large-scale counterfeiting and piracy by defining a legal framework for the enforcement of IPR in particular in the digital environment via:

increased international cooperation and
deployment of IPR enforcement practices.

Due to the potential impact that such an agreement may have on individuals’ privacy, the implications related to each of the above-mentioned elements should be carefully evaluated in view of the respect of fundamental rights.

Continue reading “Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA): towards a legalised regime of privacy invasion?”

American authorities access to banks data: challenges…and perspectives

The EU parliamentary Committee on Civil Liberties provoked a certain sensation by deciding on the 4 February to suggest to the European Parliament plenary not to conclude the interim agreement which allows the Treasury Department of The United States of America to access financial data processed by SWIFT (already published in this blog).

What the press has not explained is that this negative vote does not end the transatlantic cooperation in this domain. In fact, the second paragraph of the Recommendation invites the Commission and the Council to submit proposals complying with the new legal framework established by the Treaty of Lisbon.

Indeed, a successful conclusion of the agreement signed by the Council seems to be too shy and too advanced at the same time.

Too shy since the data protection legislation applied will remain that of the Member State where the data are stored (the Netherlands) or that of the State controlling SWIFT (Belgium). Furthermore, the authority verifying the admissibility of the request will also belong to one of these two countries despite the participation of the European Union.

The transatlantic legal framework will be the Agreement on Mutual Legal Assistance between the European Union and the United States of America, or if the conclusions will not be ratified, the bilateral agreements EU-Netherlands and EU-Belgium.

As the European Parliament’s rapporteur points out the type of access to financial data as foreseen by the TFTP is not admissible on the basis of the ordinary procedures applied in case of judicial cooperation in criminal matters. In this respect there is a risk to exceed the scope of the agreement by giving for granted the existence of a clarity in the field of data protection as well as police and judicial cooperation which does not exist not even between the Member States of the European Union.

In this regard, suffice to say that the European Union does not have a comprehensive legal framework to adequately face internal security challenges related to data protection in the field of security and police and judicial cooperation despite the numerous requests made by the European Parliament. This kind of solidarity has started with Schengen although it does not involve all the Member States.

At this stage it is inevitable to recall the old saying “nemo plus juris transferre potest quam ipse habet”, i.e. the European Union cannot transfer more powers of what itself has.

Indeed, the European Union has given to the United States all it could on the basis of the current legislation on the Agreement on mutual legal assistance between the European Union and the United States of America concluded in Washington on 28 October 2009.

The Agreement foresees:

The possibility to access banks’ data of natural or legal persons provided the latter are identified (see article 4 of the Treaty on Mutual Legal Assistance) on the basis of the European legislation in this domain (Third Directive on Money Laundering and Financial Information Regulation)
The possibility to extradite individuals to the United States applying the same conditions of the European Arrest Warrant
the possibility to create common investigation teams (on the basis of European norms concerning Europol and the Convention on Criminal Assistance).

This said, it is still technically feasible to make the transatlantic cooperation even more ambitious and make sure that the jurisprudence produced by international agreements may be translated in internal legislative measures.

To reach this goal it will then be necessary to put forward a series of simultaneous political operations which have been impossible to develop before.

Now, the first question concerns whether the American pressure will convince Member States to finally set up the necessary legal framework.

Secondly and more significantly, it is necessary to understand whether the requests put forward by the United States are compatible with the Treaty of Lisbon and the Charter on Fundamental Rights.

Thirdly, it is necessary to identify which European authority will be responsible for the Member States. For instance, one possibility to assess will be whether it would be possible to extend Eurojust and/or Europol’s powers instead of that of Dutch and Belgian authorities, ensuring at the same time loyal cooperation between the Member States.

Moreover, challenges do not only arise on this part of the Atlantic. The American negotiator is facing other equally demanding questions. For example, in case the authority in charge of the conclusions of the Agreement remains the Administration it will not be possible to seal an “executive agreement” since -by definition- it cannot modify the legal status of the American and European citizens.

What is more, an executive agreement will hardly secure the respect of those guarantees which the Charter requires avoiding hazardous appeals in front of the European and National Courts (see Karlsruhe …).

To do that it would be necessary, as in the case of police and judicial cooperation in criminal matters to pass the Congress and obtain two-thirds of the votes in the Senate. Once again, as it is often the case during the challenging evolution of the European Union, with fantasy and mutual respect it will be maybe possible to build a Transatlantic area of freedom, security and justice to which the Stockholm Programme and the inter-ministerial declaration referred on 28 October.