EU aims to boost summit security

Police in Gothenburg were overwhelmed by the protests

The European Union has held talks on security in the wake of the violent protests at the Gothenburg summit last month.

Ministers from the 15 EU member states called the special session to find ways to co-ordinate efforts to prevent demonstrations turning violent.

It's an infringement of freedom of speech, freedom of assembly in a democracy democratic protest is a legitimate facet - this is not supposed to be an autocratic regime

Lee
Global Justice

The EU was taken aback by the scale of the protests at Gothenburg and there is a sense of urgency over the issue ahead of the G8 summit in Genoa later this month.

It has been suggested that techniques used against football hooligans could be deployed against the anti-globalisation movement.

But protesters argue that this would be an infringement of their civil liberties.

Genoa

The Italian delegation briefed the meeting on its plans to deal with what is expected to be a massive influx of protesters into Genoa.

Police officers were also injured in Salzburg

The authorities there have planned some of the most stringent measures so far to prevent demonstrations from disrupting the summit.

Ministers also heard from Austria on the policing of the European economic summit in Salzburg, seen by many as a trial-run for Genoa.

Hundreds of protesters were expelled from the city on trains after the demonstrations turned violent.

Culture clash

But the 15 nations face difficulties co-ordinating what are often very different police cultures and methods.

The kind of things we saw on the streets of Gothenburg have got very little to do with democratic protest and the right to peaceful protest

Bob Ainsworth
UK Home Office

In Sweden, the police were overwhelmed by the level of violence and were not equipped with water canon.

They resorted to live rounds to dispel the protesters, injuring three people in the process.

Belgium has much more experience in dealing with protests.

The decision, taken at the Nice summit last year, to move all EU summits to Brussels is expected to help efforts to crack down on the protests.

Some have also proposed an EU-wide database of known trouble makers and using national police spotters to identify potentially violent people.

Freedom of speech

Protesters are angered by the proposals to put them in the same category as football hooligans.

"It's an infringement of freedom of speech, freedom of assembly in a democracy democratic protest is a legitimate facet - this is not supposed to be an autocratic regime," said Lee from the Global Justice group.

But Bob Ainsworth, who is representing the UK at the meeting, rejected the accusation.

"The kind of things we saw on the streets of Gothenburg have got very little to do with democratic protest and the right to peaceful protest," he said, adding that it was the residents of the cities involved who were the real victims of the protests.