Answer given by Mr Tajani on behalf of the Commission
29.11.2010
The documents cited by the Piratenpartei Deutschland are indeed working documents of the INDECT project. The Commission would however like to underline that these documents are publicly available on the webiste of INDECT: www.indect-project.eu.
The Commission would like to inform the Honourable Member that it has no indication that INDECT has violated the Data Protection Directive[1] in the course of its current research activities. All projects funded under the seventh framework programme (FP7), including INDECT, are bound to comply with strict criteria in the processing of personal data, with Article 7 (a) of Directive 1995/46/EC being the appropriate legal basis. All FP7 Cooperation Programme research projects must also inter alia ensure compliance with Article 8 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, which assures that everyone has the right to the protection of their own personal data.
The Commission would like to inform the Honourable Member that INDECT will shortly be the subject of an ethical audit which should clarify such concerns.
The Commission would like to draw the attention of the Honourable Member to the fact that the research work done by the INDECT project is in concordance with the legal basis of the FP7 Security Theme, the FP7 Specific Programme for Cooperation. The Specific Programme clearly stipulates that the FP7 Security Theme should: ‘[…] build up the required capabilities, emphasis will be on issues such as: […] awareness (e.g. intelligence gathering, collection, exploitation, sharing; alerting), detection (e.g. hazardous substances, individuals or groups, suspect behaviour) […]’.
The Commission would like to underline that a secure Europe is the basis for planning our lives, for economic investments, for prosperity and freedom. The Security theme contributes to the implementation of EU external policies[2], to the creation of an EU‑wide area of freedom, justice and security[3], in the context of the ‘Stockholm Programme’, and to policy areas such as transport[4], health[5], civil protection[6], energy[7] development[8] and environment[9].
The Security theme has an exclusively civil application focus, no defence research theme exists in FP7.
The Carlos III University of Madrid is mainly working on Security and Privacy Management and the Observation, analysis and detection of criminal activities and threats in complex virtual environments. The focuses of Apif Moviquity S.A. in INDECT are: Intelligent observation systems and Exploitation.
- [1] Directive 95/46/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 October 1995 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, OJ L 281, 23.11.1995.
- [2] http://ec.europa.eu/external_relations/cfsp/
- [3] http://ec.europa.eu/justice_home/fsj/
- [4] http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/energy_transport/security/index_en.htm
- [5] http://ec.europa.eu/health/ph_threats/com/preparedness/preparedness_en.htm
- [6] http://ec.europa.eu/environment/civil/index.htm
- [7] http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/energy_transport/security/index_en.htm
- [8] http://europa.eu/pol/dev/
- [9] http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/environment/index_en.htm
OJ C 249 E, 26/08/2011