The Future of the European Security Architecture
As threats to public security become more complex and globalised, national and targeted security strategies are increasingly replaced by a European security architecture. This security approach, also visible in asylum and immigration policies, relies on the extensive use of personal data collected in large-scale databases which are rendered interoperable and searchable through modern and potentially self-learning technologies.
- Start date
- 23 February 2023
- End date
- 24 February 2023
- Time
- 13:00
The EU Directive on the use of Passenger Name Records (PNR Directive) is at the heart of this emerging European security architecture. It instrumentalizes private air carriers for the indiscriminate collection and state-led automated analysis of PNR datasets relating to hundreds of millions of air passengers. Hence, when the Court of Justice of the EU decided in Ligue des droits humains (Case C-817/19) on the PNR Directive’s compatibility with EU law, it simultaneously rendered a landmark decision on this emerging European security architecture.
The objective of this conference is to explore from a multi-disciplinary perspective the far-reaching consequences that the PNR decision has on the future of the European security architecture, the protection of fundamental rights, and the accountability of different actors, including EU agencies. In light of the PNR decision, the conference seeks to address four themes:
- the role of Artificial Intelligence in EU security governance
- the requirements for independent oversight mechanisms and judicial review
- the limits of national security exceptions
- public-private collaborations and the protection of privacy and other fundamental rights
Organizing Committee
- Evelien Brouwer is lecturer in Public Law, Migration and Technology at the Utrecht University since October 2021.
- Elspeth Guild is Jean Monnet Professor ad personam at Queen Mary University of London as well as at the Radboud University Nijmegen, Netherlands. She is also a partner at the London law firm, Kingsley Napley. She is also a visiting Professor at the College of Europe, Bruges.
- Valsamis Mitsilegas Professor of European and Global Law and Dean of the School of Law and Social Justice, University of Liverpool.
- Stefan Salomon is Assistant Professor of European Law at the European Studies Department at the University of Amsterdam.
- Christian Thönnes is a doctoral researcher at the Department of Public Law of the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Crime, Security and Law in Freiburg.