The European Union’s wide-ranging Stockholm Programme risks further damaging citizens’ hard earned privacy rights, argues Pirate Party member and long-time libertarian blogger Henrik Alexandersson.
EU ministers are gathering in Stockholm this week to advance their work on the Stockholm Programme, a five-year plan they claim is designed to make it easier to catch criminals and keep Europe’s citizens safe.
But despite soothing words from politicians about the programme’s virtues, it’s critical for EU citizens to stand up now and protest against the threat it presents to privacy and individual rights.
Read more on The Local (Sweden).
Earlier, Sweden’s Beatrice Ask, their Minister for Justice, and Tobias Billström, Minister for Migration and Asylum, both members of the Moderate Party, had written about the Stockholm Programme:
The right to respect for privacy must be guaranteed regardless of national borders, particularly with regard to the protection of personal data. A comprehensive and effective system for the protection of personal data is needed in the EU. The rights of individuals in criminal cases, such as their right to interpretation and translation, need to be strengthened. The rights of victims of crime also need to be developed. People who have been the victims of crime abroad often need better support and information than that frequently offered today. We also want to create mechanisms to provide easier access to justice for individuals, so that everyone is able to exercise their rights anywhere in the Union.