Suchergebnisse

Abstract:The affair Edward Snowden and his disclosures of the practices of the US National Security Agency have triggered a discussion on the relationship between security and freedom. The formula "as much security as possible and as much freedom as possible" obscures the problem. If we have to choose: Do we want to restrict security in favor of freedom or do we want to restrict freedom in favor of security? Fortunately, we do not have to choose. Reconciliation of security and freedom must be possible because both are part of the common good. If there seems to be a conflict, it can result only from a misunderstanding. Nobody can enjoy freedom if he is dead. Therefore, no claim to freedom can be regarded reasonable that conflicts with necessary measures for the protection of security. It is inherent to freedom that it is limited by the necessary protection of security. Objections against collecting and storing personal data are nourished by the fear that collected data could be abused. But it would be unreasonable to stop the collecting and storing of data for the protection of security because no absolute guarantee against the abuse of such data can be given. If society, organized in the state, may require everyone to make his just contribution to the common efforts of militarily defending it when suffering from an unjust aggression by another state, and if it is therefore – at least in principle – the duty of everyone to risk life and limb in the course of such defence, it would be illogic to allege that there does not exist, again for everyone, the duty to risk his privacy for the protection of security. The collection and retention of personal data even before any particular person has become a suspect can be a useful means for the prevention of terrorist acts and other crimes. If the traditional rules for data collection and retention are outdated, they have to be changed. If courts should fail to react to these developments, adaptation of the law would become a matter for the legislature. Keywords: personal data, particular person, data collection and retention.

The European Union is not merely an economic and monetary union, even if its predecessors, the European Communities, had their focus on economic integration. This was caused by the fact that the more ambitious projects of a European Defence Community and a European Political Community had failed in 1954; after this setback it was considered wise to start by laying the economic grounds for a later more comprehensive Union. Keywords: European Union, economic and monetary Union, European Communities, economic integration, European Defence Community, European Political Community

After the Second World War, Europe has opted for integration. The European Communities and, later on, the European Union, proved a successful concept. With the entering into force of the Lisbon Treaty in 2009, it a streamlined European Union which we have to look to if we want to speak about he Challenges for Europe after the turn to the third millennium. The Union that emerged from the Lisbon Treaty is faced with quite a number of challenges: a global economic crisis, hardly overcome, an aging European society with the negative demographic development likely to endanger the competitiveness of European national economies and the sustainability of European social models, climatic change, a mounting dependence on energy provided from outside, and the shift of production and of return on capital to the East. In addition, there is a security problem constituted by terrorism, organised crime and proliferation of nuclear weapons. The European Union will have to actively participate in the measures called for in order to bring about the necessary changes in the world. What is called for is not only co-operation between the Member States but also uniting the various social groups within the different Member States in one common effort. As regards globalisation, a multipolar system of what once might have been called hegemonial states has evolved. This calls for the reform of global steering structures. This presupposes a system of multilateral steering. Unfortunately, there exists only a fragile consensus about such a system of multilateral steering. The European Union should therefore work in favour of a new consensus on the basis of what can be called a Grand Bargain, with mutual advantages for all involved. There still exits a gap between the capacities of the European Union in the economic field and its capacities in the area of Foreign and Security Policy. What is needed is a common European strategic concept for reshaping the rules of world government. The Union must remain open for every State that fulfils the criteria for membership, because it is those criteria which constitute the true borders of Europe. The European Union is more than just a common market. It is an area of security, freedom and justice. Such an area must be based on common values; and these values have now been repeated and expanded, by the Lisbon Treaty, in Article 2 of the Treaty on European Union. Keywords: European Union, Lisbon Treaty, demographic development, terrorism, organised crime and proliferation of nuclear weapons.