EU conference in Dresden: German Interior Minister Schäuble advocates police state measures

The meeting served to kick off Germany’s assumption of the rotating European Union presidency. German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble of the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) laid out a catalogue of measures aimed at undermining democratic rights throughout the EU.

Proposals included ratification of the Prüm Convention, which allows increased sharing of intelligence between several EU countries, using the military to secure EU borders, and an expansion of the European police agency Europol.

In addition, German Justice Minister Brigitte Zypries (Social Democratic Party—SPD) initiated a new push to restrict freedom of opinion throughout the continent. Although focussing on a prohibition of the use and distribution of extreme right-wing symbols and propaganda, its content allows for a much wider application.

It was no accident that the first ministerial meeting under the German EU presidency concentrated on domestic and juridical affairs. The German government under Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) has sent a clear signal of its intent to use the EU presidency to undertake an offensive against democratic rights and in

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