Review of security measures in the 6th research framework programme and the preparatory action for security research

Security research has constituted, over the pas few years, a strong priority for Community policies in the field of scientific research, industry, and justice and home affairs. Community efforts in this domain have been channelled, over the period 2002-2006, through the 6th Framework programme (FP6) and the Preparatory action on security research (PASR). FP6 has sustained, within its various thematic priorities, a series of projects and programmes dealing with technological developments in the field of security. The PASR is a targeted initiative of the European Commission aiming at developing contacts and partnerships between the actors of the European security industry, the public actors, and research bodies. PASR activities, in this respect, have mainly focused on technological development and the networking of actors, in anticipation for the thematic programme on security now established under FP7. The analysis of the contents of research being conducted under the FP6 and PASR is very revealing in this respect: it highlights the fact that this research is mainly oriented towards technological development as such, and unquestioningly takes security as a norm and a fundamental value. In this regard, and despite the odd exception, European security research does not include in its scope the effects that increasingly sophisticated technologies of control and surveillance can have on individual freedom and rights, particularly with regard privacy and the protection of personal data. It does not address the necessary limits to security. The point, then, is to envisage the modalities through which a reflection on the ethical, legal, political and social implications of security technologies can be strengthen and further integrated in European security research.