In his speech of 23 November 2005 on terrorism, former Commissioner Franco Frattini spoke of the ‘"right to security", which is basically the right to life’. In its impact assessment of 17 April 2018 accompanying its e-evidence proposal, the Commission mentions the ‘right to security’ of ‘persons who are or may become victims of crime’. In his answers to Parliament, then Commissioner-designate Margaritis Schinas wrote that it was ‘the most basic and universal of rights to feel safe and secure’ and that the ‘right to security must be balanced against the right to privacy and to the protection of personal data’.

While protecting citizens from crime it is without doubt an important political objective and some positive legal obligations in that field do exist, the legal concept of an individual right to security from crime, which needs to be balanced against other fundamental rights, is a different matter. The right to security enshrined in Article 6 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union relates to security from unlawful detention, not security from crime.

1. Does the Commission believe that there is a human/fundamental right to security from crime?

2. If so, what is its legal basis in EU law?