Lisbon - EU government ministers meeting in Lisbon on Monday
rejected claims that the use of new technology and the sharing of
travellers' data to detect terrorists would infringe on people's
civil liberties.
Justice and interior ministers attending the informal meeting also
clashed over plans to close down internet sites that inform
extremists on how to make a bomb.
But top EU officials present in the Portuguese capital hinted that
a further nine EU member states would probably abolish systematic
border controls as part of the Schengen free-movement agreement ahead
of schedule.
'If your question is whether a sort-of 'Big Brother' is arising in
Europe and calling fundamental rights into question, then the answer
is 'no',' Rui Pereira, Portugal's interior minister, told a press
conference in the Portuguese capital.
'But no member state, and the EU as a whole, can avoid fighting
terrorism,' said Pereira, whose country holds the six-month rotating
presidency of the 27-member bloc.
The minister was responding to growing concerns that European
legislators might curb people's individual freedoms in their attempts
to prevent new terrorism attacks on their territory.
And Franco Frattini, the EU's justice, freedom and security
commissioner, has tabled a series of proposals in the wake of recent
scares in Germany, Britain and Denmark.
The proposals include a European Passenger Name Record (PNR) and a
register of foreigners entering or leaving the bloc that would
ultimately include details such as their photograph, fingerprints and
even a scan of the retina of their eyes.
Under such proposals, law-enforcement officials in all member
states would be allowed to share the collected data with colleagues
across the EU.
'We will be listening to Frattini's proposals,' said Luc Frieden,
Luxembourg's justice minister and one of the doyens of such meetings.
'The technical instruments are already in place, and I don't think we
need to have more regulations (to put them in place),' he added.
But Frieden, along with his Austrian colleague, said he opposed
one of Frattini's plans to shut down internet sites that incite
terrorist activity.
'I think we shouldn't be limiting freedom of speech, that is why
the measure won't go very far,' he said.
Also on Monday, EU officials gave the strongest indication yet
that nine other member states would be able to implement the Schengen
agreement before Christmas, several days ahead of the planned
deadline.
'All of the tests carried out have confirmed that the (applicants)
will be able to remove the frontier by the end of the year. In
principle, this will take place in the week before Christmas,'
Pereira said.
All of the 10 countries that joined the EU in 2004 except Cyprus
have been carrying out tests designed to abolish systematic border
controls for people travelling to and from other Schengen member-
states by the end of 2007.
Monday's announcement only affects land and sea borders as checks
at airports will not be lifted before March of next year.
The nine countries that are set to join Schengen in the coming
months are the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania,
Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia.
Other issues on the agenda of the two-day informal meeting due to
end in Lisbon on Tuesday include child protection and a new EU
website that would include a list of missing children.
The initiative is believed to have been inspired by the
international media frenzy sparked by Madeleine McCann, the British
four-year-old who went missing from the Portuguese holiday resort of
the Algarve on May 3.
In a separate meeting Monday, officials from Portugal and
neighbouring Spain agreed to help each other crack down on members of
ETA, the Basque separatist group, amid concerns that some of its
members may have sought refuge in Portugal.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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