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Security industry is shaping EU legislation, Nikolaj Nielsen, euobserver.com, 01.10.13"EOS is a Brussels-based non-profit outfit that represents the business interest of some of the EU’s most powerful and largest security and defence companies.BAE Systems, EADS, Finmeccanica, G4S, Thales and 38 other companies are listed as members. Collectively, they employ some 2 million people and have cornered around 65 percent of the European security systems market, which they want to increase by exerting pressure on EU legislators.To some extent, they have already succeeded in influencing EU legislative files and policy initiatives when it comes to EU defence and security strategies.(...)In a new initiative, EOS is now pushing the commission to allow private security companies access to maritime surveillance data gathered under the bloc's Common Information Sharing Environment (CISE).EU and national authorities are responsible for different aspects of surveillance when it comes to border control, safety and security, fisheries control, customs, environment or defence.Some 80 different security-related national authorities throughout the Union work in the maritime sector. Each gather their own data but do not necessarily share it." (...)(Photo: Defence Images)More : http://euobserver.com/priv-immigration/121485EU border agency keen to expand Mediterranean Sea surveillance, Nikolaj Nielsen, euobserver.com, 19.03.13" Spanning some 2.5 million square kilometres, the Mediterranean Sea remains largely outside the surveillance scope of member states and the Warsaw-based EU border agency Frontex.“We do not know at present what is going on in the Mediterranean Sea. We do not know, nor do the member states,” Edgar Beugels, head of research and development at Frontex, told reporters in Brussels on Monday (18 March).Beugels said the agency is looking at different technologies to increase the “situational awareness” of the EU’s external borders, including the use of drones or so-called remotely piloted aircraft (RPA).“Remotely piloted aircraft is just one of the technologies we are looking into. At this moment we do not know if this is a technology that we could potentially give to the border guard community,” he noted." (...)More : http://euobserver.com/justice/119473Frontex chief looks beyond EU borders, Nikolaj Nielsen, euobserver.com, 14.01.13"Frontex, the pan-European border agency based in Warsaw, is mandated to co-ordinate member state border police patrols on Europe's external frontiers.But its executive director, Ilkka Laitinen, told EUobserver the agency is looking to expand its surveillance operations beyond the EU to develop a so-called "common pre-frontier intelligence picture [CPIP]."This is where Frontex is due to arrange the delivery and the production of additional surveillance data from an area that is beyond the border, typically we are talking about international borders or some further areas," said Laitinen." (...)More : http://euobserver.com/priv-immigration/121485