Application of the RFID technology in the European Union border control system

Gender, Securitisation and Transit: Refugee Women and the Journey to the EU

Since the 1990s, ICT initiatives have been an increasingly central feature of the European Union’s border security policy. One set of initiatives has sought to fortify the EU’s external perimeter while another set creates new frontiers beyond this geopolitical boundary. Recently, the European Commission signaled its renewed commitment to this two-pronged approach with the release of its Border Package. This paper makes two arguments. First, this two-pronged approach has done little to deter identified border threats and the implementation of the Border Package would not rectify this situation. Second, the approach has contributed to a border management regime that is having an increasingly divergent impact on the mobility and life chances of different groups and populations. It is argued that the EU’s recent proposals would intensify this effect if implemented.

Much of the existing literature on the European Union (EU), conflict transformation and border dynamics has been premised on the assumption that the nature of the border determines EU intervention and the consequences that flow from this in terms of EU impact. The article aims to transcend this literature through assessing how domestic interpretations influence EU border transformation in conflict situations, taking Cyprus as a case study. Moreover, the objective is to fuse the literature on EU bordering impact and perceptions of the EU’s normative projection in conflict resolution. Pursuing this line of inquiry is an attempt to depart from the notion of borders being constructed solely by unidirectional EU logics of engagement or bordering practices to a conceptualization of the border as co-constituted space, where the interpretations of the EU’s normative projections by conflict parties, and the strategies that they pursue, can determine the relative openness of the EU border.

Asylum Policy and European Union Politics

The European Union (EU) has been struggling to find a shared course on African migration since the entry into force of the Schengen Agreement (1995). It has done so through two interrelated processes of negotiation. Firstly, parties have negotiated narrative frames about migration and, in particular, whether migration should be interpreted in terms of security or in terms of development. Secondly, they have negotiated internal and external migration policies , that is, how migration should be managed respectively inside the EU (based on cooperation between EU member states) and outside it (based on cooperation with third states). In times in which narrative frames increasingly shape policy negotiations, it becomes very important to analyse how policymakers negotiate narrative frames on migration and how these shape policy responses. However, such an analysis is still missing. This discussion paper investigates how European states and institutions have negotiated the relation between EU borders and African mobility between 1999 and the beginning of 2019. It focusses in particular on how the process of negotiation of migration policies has been interrelated with a process of negotiation of narrative frames on migration. It does so based on an analysis of EU policy documents from 1999 to 2019 and on interviews with representatives of European and African states and regional organisations. Two major trends have characterised related EU negotiation processes: migration-security narrative frames have strengthened national-oriented and solid borders-oriented approaches (and vice versa), and migration-development narrative frames have strengthened transnational-oriented and liquid borders-oriented approaches (and vice versa). Since 1999, the European Council has mostly represented security- and national-oriented approaches, and the European Commission has mostly represented development- and transnational-oriented approaches. The two competing approaches have always been interlinked and influenced each other. However, in the last years, security-oriented national and solid border approaches have gained prominence over development-oriented transnational and liquid border approaches. In particular, the Commission has progressively mainstreamed national objectives in its transnational actions and security concerns in its development measures. Prioritising security over transnational development has augmented inequalities, in particular at the expenses of actors with scarce political representation in Africa and the EU. Such inequalities include increasing migrant selectivity and wage dumping.

Border control systems at Europe’s Schengen (and worldwide) borders are necessary to mitigate cross-border threats, but are perceived as free-traveling bottlenecks. Today’s applicable European regulations demand rule-based control schemes and do not allow risk-based elements. A policy shift towards risk-based border control has been considered in several studies and research (including HEU projects). However, there is a lack of scientific evidence on how they compare with existing rule-based schemes. This paper aims to fill that gap. The simulation allows design of a realistic border control system. The passenger flow is modeled via travelers with good and bad intents. The border control system includes decision-making elements to classify travelers into risk groups. System elements including operators and their interaction were modeled in terms of statistical distributions based on the subject matter experts’ input. The performance is estimated across security effectiveness, resource usage, passenger flow, and traveler experience. Assessment of a set of simulations reveals better scalability of risk-based systems in terms of resource usage and passenger flow. The potential factors to improve the detection rate of the border control process are also studied. Despite having several benefits, the model demonstrates that social acceptance of the risk-based system is the limiting factor for increased scalability.

The European Union (EU) has responded to changing security threats by seeking to increase cooperation between the law enforcement agencies of the Member States, granting further powers to Europol and other intelligence-sharing institutions, and by undertaking police missions beyond EU borders. The literature relating to EU policing is generally focused on the ‘internal’ and ‘external’ dimensions, or on specific aspects of police activity. This tendency to concentrate on narrow or isolated areas of policing has led to a significant gap regarding the broader analysis of the EU as a comprehensive police actor. Important questions about the nature of EU policing as a whole, as well as the contribution of policing activities to the EU’s security agenda, remain unexplored in the literature. This article aims to define what is meant by ‘comprehensive policing’ and to indentify criteria by which the comprehensiveness of EU-level policing may be measured. In addition to this, an integrated actorness/police comprehensiveness framework will be presented as a tool for assessing the EU as a comprehensive police actor.

Detection System of the First Rapidly Relocatable Tagged Neutron Inspection System (RRTNIS), Developed in the Framework of the European H2020 C-BORD Project

This study examines the impact of European Union (EU) border rejections triggered by non-tariff measure (NTM) compliance failures on African exports of edible fruits and vegetables between 2008 and 2018. Using data from the EU's Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) and export statistics from 45 African countries (UN WITS), we employ a structural sectoral gravity model to address key econometric challenges, including endogeneity of border rejections and zero trade flows. The analysis reveals that NTM-related rejections, often due to exceedances of pesticide or aflatoxin maximum residue limits, and presence of unauthorized substances such as dichlorvos, carbendazim, or dead insects, significantly reduce both the number of European trade partners and the export value of African vegetables. Conversely, fruit exports show a modest increase in trade partners and export value following rejections, suggesting possible adaptive strategies or shifts in trade dynamics. The study also identifies spillover effects, where rejections in one product category lead to increased rejections in related categories in subsequent years. These findings underscore the need for African countries to strengthen compliance with EU sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) requirements, invest in regional testing and certification capacity, and improve coordination between exporters and regulatory authorities.

European Union (EU) migration policy prescribes dialogue and cooperation with the transit countries south of the Mediterranean, embodied in the Barcelona Process from 1995 onwards. This dialogue inflexibly favours the prevention of unwanted migration, which frequently arises as a result of political and economic crisis. Furthermore, the War on Terror has provided the conditions for a militarised ‘buffer zone’. At a time when several Mediterranean and Middle Eastern countries are renegotiating their state regimes and external relations, this article examines the development of a securitised migration regime. It argues that rentier politics, which underpin international exploitation of Mauritania's mineral resources and the management of its borders, have contributed to the governance of migration. This undermines the holistic aims of EU policy. As a result, Mauritania engages in a dual role: first as receiver of ‘returned’ migrants from Europe; and secondly as ‘returner’ of sub-Saharan migrants who may attempt to proceed to Europe. This strains established but precarious patterns of West African trade and labour migration, but also offers opportunities in migrant communities to overcome the hazards of attempting to enter the EU. This article examines the dynamics of West African migration and migrants' resistance to the EU's border and labour policies.

SummaryPsychiatric training in all European Union (EU) Member States complies with the relevant Council Directive 93/16, permitting free movement of specialists within EU borders. This assumes that the training offers similar experiences, and produces specialists fit for purpose in all EU countries. Surveys demonstrate that, although all countries adhere to the conditions of the Directive, the diversity of training is striking on all but the most fundamental aspects. An added complication is that psychiatric practice has become increasingly diversified, even between neighbouring countries, and psychiatric training will have evolved to meet national service requirements. Questions about how to safeguard competence of psychiatric specialists to practice across the EU are therefore pertinent, and introducing systems to regulate quality control of training should be considered.

What the eye does not see: a critical interpretive synthesis of European Union policies addressing sexual violence in vulnerable migrants

Complying with the European Union (EU) perspective on human rights goes or should go together with handling ethical, social and legal challenges arising due to the use of biometrics technology as border control technology. While there is no doubt that the biometrics technology at European borders is a valuable element of border control systems, these technologies lead to issues of fundamental rights and personal privacy, among others. This paper discusses various ethical, social and legal challenges arising due to the use of biometrics technology in border control. First, a set of specific challenges and values affected were identified and then, generic considerations related to mitigation of these issues within a framework is provided. The framework is expected to meet the emergent need for supplying interoperability among multiple information systems used for border control.

As the number of European Union (EU) visitors grows, implementing novel border control solutions, such as mobile devices for passenger identification for land and sea border control, becomes paramount to ensure the convenience and safety of passengers and officers. However, these devices, handling sensitive personal data, become attractive targets for malicious actors seeking to misuse or steal such data. Therefore, to increase the level of security of such devices without interrupting border control activities, robust user authentication mechanisms are essential. Toward this direction, we propose a risk-based adaptive user authentication mechanism for mobile passenger identification devices for land and sea border control, aiming to enhance device security without hindering usability. In this work, we present a comprehensive assessment of novelty and outlier detection algorithms and discern OneClassSVM, Local Outlier Factor (LOF), and Bayesian_GaussianMixtureModel (B_GMM) novelty detection algorithms as the most effective ones for risk estimation in the proposed mechanism. Furthermore, in this work, we develop the proposed risk-based adaptive user authentication mechanism as an application on a Raspberry Pi 4 Model B device (i.e., playing the role of the mobile device for passenger identification), where we evaluate the detection performance of the three best performing novelty detection algorithms (i.e., OneClassSVM, LOF, and B_GMM), with B_GMM surpassing the others in performance when deployed on the Raspberry Pi 4 device. Finally, we evaluate the risk estimation overhead of the proposed mechanism when the best performing B_GMM novelty detection algorithm is used for risk estimation, indicating efficient operation with minimal additional latency.

Big data-based governance requires both compatible modes of computing data and interoperable databases. While interoperability is often portrayed as a logical imperative, we understand it as socially co-produced within a political choice for algorithmic governance. We use the case of the European Union's border management regime to show how its reconfiguration towards increasing reliance on data governance carries political and societal consequences, specifically the side-lining of civil society. In concrete, we focus on EU-funded Research and Development (R&D) for security, which has seen an increase in projects addressing the realization of interoperability. Based on an original dataset of Civil Society Organization's (CSO) participation in EU security research and a mixed-methods approach combining digital methods, ethnographic methods, and semi-structured interviews, we find that civil society has largely remained side-lined in making interoperability – not as mere unintended consequence, but by design. Additionally, and in line with our socio-technical approach to the topic, our findings show how interoperability is a polysemic concept that different actors understand in very different ways, opening up for negotiation and political contestation. Although CSOs at times participate in interoperability R&D projects, the political objectives of R&D in terms of achieving interoperability are defined in other spatial and temporal settings outside of the ‘laboratory’ of the project. At a more general level, our findings contribute to uncover the modes in which the public relates with big data governance in the field of security.