Open Europe warns European citizens: Prison Island Britain is coming to EU

The highly respected Open Europe group have today issued a press release which should serve as a warning to citizens of EU member states about the imminent eradication of their civil liberties.

While many citizens of European countries comment on UK newspaper online messageboards expressing disbelief at the curtailing of our civil liberties, Britain's island Alcatraz may soon be coming closer to the rest of Europe than any of them dare think - thanks to the Lisbon Treaty.

Open Europe warn proposals include: "a target to train a third of all police officers across the EU in a “common culture” of policing; the mass collection and sharing of personal data including DNA records into an EU-wide database; controversial surveillance techniques including ‘cyber patrols’; the creation of a fledgling ‘EU Home Office’ with powers to decide on cooperation on police, border, immigration and criminal justice issues; an EU “master plan” on information exchange; the transfer of criminal proceedings among EU member states; a three-fold increase in the number of controversial EU arrest warrants; access to other member states’ national tax databases; and EU laws on citizens’ right to internet access, among many other things".

Stephen Booth, analyst for Open Europe, comments: "Ratification of the Lisbon Treaty will see powers over justice and home affairs policy almost completely shifted to the EU level. How can citizens expect their fundamental rights to liberty and independence from the state to be protected by unaccountable institutions which have a vested interest in creating more laws? With its talk of the UK’s ‘opt-ins’ on justice and home affairs, the Government has attempted to hood-wink its citizens into thinking they will somehow be unaffected by the Lisbon Treaty. The reality is that the UK has often been at the forefront of the EU’s most invasive and controversial laws in this field, using the EU to bypass the democratic scrutiny of the UK Parliament."

Speaking as a British citizen, whilst horrified, we are unsurprised yet strangely optimistic about these plans. The people of Britain have been subject to more and more of this kind of island imprisonment masquerading as liberty over recent years.

We can't wait to see how the people of France, Spain and Italy respond to being treated as we have for the last decade.

Good luck EU. We can see what the French will do if you try it on them.

Let the EU eat cake, as it were.