Italy to impose border controls

Police in Gothenburg were overwhelmed by the protests

Italy is to temporarily reimpose border controls in an attempt to restrict the influx of anti-globalisation protesters expected to head for the G8 summit in Genoa.

An interior ministry official said the Schengen agreement, which allows EU citizens free movement between most member states, would be suspended from July 14 for a week.

Genoa's two train stations will also be closed from July 18 until the two-day summit closes on July 22.

The measures are designed to stop the sort of violent protests which rocked the Gothenburg summit last month.

Italy announced the plans after ministers from the 15 EU member states met for a 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 and democratic protest is a legitimate facet - this is not supposed to be an autocratic regime

Lee from the Global Justice protest group

'Hooligans'

The EU was taken aback by the scale of the protests at Gothenburg, leading to suggestions 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.

The Italian delegation briefed the EU special sessions on dealing with protesters on its plans for Genoa. As well as extra police, Italy also intends to mobilise 2,700 soldiers to ensure security.

Police officers were also injured in Salzburg

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.

A decision to move all EU summits to Brussels, taken at the Nice summit last year, 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 and 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 represented 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.