Normative Market Europe? The Contested Governance of Cyber-surveillance Technologies

VILA SEOANE, MAXIMILIANO FACUNDO

Emerging Security Technologies and EU Governance: Actors, practices and processes

Routledge

Año: 2020;

The proliferation of cyber-surveillance technologies has paved the way to new threats to human rights. European firms are important providers of such technologies to authoritarian regimes, which expose a highly problematic double-speak by the EU?s alleged defence of human rights in cyberspace. In the face of this inconsistency, in 2016, the European Commission proposed to update the Union?s regime for the export of dual-use items in order to incorporate these technologies.By examining the contested process of governing cyber-surveillance technologies under the light of the ?EU as a Power? debates, this chapter departs from the arguments that on the one hand cyber-surveillance technologies are very difficult to regulate, and on the other hand that the EU will inevitably succeed given its?normative power?. Instead,this article adopts the Normative Market Europe approach to argue that, despite an initial approach by European Commission and the European Parliament to uphold human rights in the export of cyber-surveillance technologies in the new regulation, the final outcome has been contested and will possible result far more limited due to the influence of the private sector in the Council of the EU negotiating position.This casts doubt on whether the EU can really govern cyber-surveillance technologies in line with its Charter of Fundamental Rights.p { margin-bottom: 0.1in; direction: ltr; line-height: 120%; text-align: left; orphans: 2; widows: 2 }p.western { so-language: en-GB }a:link { color: #0000ff }