EUROSUR – a sci-fi border zone patrolled by drones?

Abstract

In the context of the smart border initiative, the European Union also established a mass surveillance and data exchange programme, called European External Border Surveillance System (EUROSUR). This paper will look at the compliance of the respective European regulation and the implementation of the system with Article 8 ECHR (European Convention on Human Rights, hereinafter: ECHR.) as well as Articles 7 & 8 EUFRCh (Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (2000/C 364/01), hereinafter: EUFRCh.). This paper will argue that due to the concrete circumstances of the data processing and the large scale of the surveillance, the EUROSUR system constitutes a serious interference with the right to data protection and privacy. While the necessity of such an additional and intrusive border management tool is already highly questionable, in the end, the interference is not justified. In particular, the vagueness in most parts of the regulation and the lack of specific privacy protecting safeguards preclude the fulfilment of the ‘quality of law’ requirements. Furthermore, it will be shown that a more privacy preserving version is conceivable. As a result, EUROSUR is neither in accordance with law, nor necessary, nor proportionate, and therefore violates Article 8 ECHR as well as Articles 7 & 8 EUFRCh.