October 12, 2022 12:50 pm
On November 27, 1895, by signing his will, Alfred Nobel had to imagine that the idea of leaving much of his fortune to deserving but strangers would have displeased many. It was not only part of the family that horrified, but also the then King of Sweden Oscar II, who called his ideas absurd and antipatriotic about him.
At the end of a long legal battle, whoever had challenged his will had to resign. The five Nobel Prizes were established and the one for peace would be awarded to those who were most committed “to fraternity among nations, to the abolition or reduction of standing armies, to the establishment and promotion of peace congresses. “.
But Nobel’s will, after that initial victory, was nevertheless betrayed. According to Norwegian lawyer Fredrik S. Heffermehl, co-founder of The Nobel peace prize watch, between 1946 and 2008 over half of the Nobel Peace Prizes were awarded in violation of the provisions of the will. As Heffermehl explained in a 2014 interview, the award was not intended for those who promote “peace in general, but for those activists and activists whose goal is to end militarism.”
A worrying turning point
The European Union gained recognition exactly ten years ago, on 12 October 2012, “for contributing to peace, reconciliation, democracy and human rights in Europe”, and even then there was no shortage of controversy. The absence of a conflict between European states, many denounced, did not mean that the European Union was no stranger to war. Several governments took part in conflicts within the framework of NATO (in Libya and Afghanistan) or exported weapons. And they all supported the use of force against what was presented as a dangerous invasion: men, women, girls and boys who wanted to reach EU territory to seek refuge, find work, reunite with family, study – often for more. intertwined motifs. In other words, the European Union was not exactly working to combat militarism.
In 2012 Frontex, the European agency in charge of coordinating and supporting member states in the surveillance of the EU’s external borders, had been operational for seven years. At the time, the agency was little known to the general public, but it already had a bad reputation due to its opacity, lack of control mechanisms of its work and its role in strengthening the criminalization of migration. The officials employed directly by the agency, whose headquarters is in Warsaw, were all civilians, while the armed personnel on the ground (agents, coast and border guards) were seconded from member states.
Then, in 2019, confirmation came that the European Union should not have received the Nobel Peace Prize. With the reform of the Frontex regulation adopted that year, the EU has entered a new chapter in its history: from a body of civil officials, that of the European institutions has also become an armed body. Frontex officials are in fact the first, in the history of the staff of the European institutions, to be authorized to carry weapons. A source of pride for the agency, this turnaround is extremely worrying.
The militarization of the EU has already begun with the militarization of the borders “, says MEP Demirel
By 2027, the Frontex standing corps should consist of ten thousand people, of which three thousand European officials (belonging to the so-called category 1, or statutory personnel) and seven thousand “seconded agents from EU member states”. In May 2022, as stated in an EU Council document published by Statewatch, the agency had hired 835 category 1 agents who so far, due to an unforeseen legal obstacle, would seem to have only borrowed weapons. Since 2016, the year of a previous reform of its regulation, Frontex has been able to acquire “technical equipment”. According to the agency, “this category also included firearms,” explains researcher Matthias Monroy, author of the blog Security architectures in the EU.
But Frontex was wrong, and the Commission was forced to intervene to clarify under what conditions the agency can acquire, transport and store weapons. In the meantime, Frontex has reached an agreement with Greece and Lithuania to ensure a supply of weapons, without interrupting its “dialogues with the industry” and in any case awarding, in October 2021, a contract worth 3.76 million euros. to the Austrian company Glock for the supply of “semiautomatic pistols, ammunition and accessories”.
“Many of these things we know only because the right questions have been asked”, Monroy observes, referring in particular to the parliamentary questions presented by the German MEP Özlem Demirel (Confederal Group of the European United Left / Nordic Green Left), who comments: ” We see the same trend in European defense policy, with the plan to create a European army. This is not a permanent force that will be born tomorrow, but we must criticize the developments towards this goal. The militarization of the European Union has already begun with the militarization of the borders ”.
And this militarization now extends well beyond the borders of the EU. From 2019 Frontex can in fact conclude cooperation agreements also with third countries not bordering the EU territory, also guaranteeing enhanced immunity to its agents (researcher Martina Previatello has published a detailed analysis of this new type of agreement). Armed European officials can now be deployed, inside and outside the EU, to “protect European borders”, using force to block, intercept, reject or repatriate potential asylum seekers guilty of trying to reach the European Union in “irregular” way – the only way available to them.
More powers and autonomy
And to whom will they be accountable for their actions? Only to their superior, the executive director of Frontex, who enjoys absolute autonomy. “The latter”, Monroy observes, “can be removed from the Frontex board of directors”, which includes representatives of the Commission and member states, “but on the operational level no one can tell Frontex what to do”. Moreover, the same board of directors approved, in January 2021, the creation of a committee on the use of force by category 1 agents, a committee which is not only consultative, but which should be made up of people chosen by the director. Frontex executive.
“The main problem is that of democratic control”, underlines Monroy, recalling that with the Treaty of Lisbon the agencies, like the rest of the European institutions, have acquired more powers and more autonomy: “But when the decision was taken, no one imagined that, ten years after the entry into force of the treaty, Frontex would be armed. There is no going back now. The European Union has decided to take this direction, and Frontex has led the way ”.
In 1893 Alfred Nobel wrote to his friend Bertha Von Suttner, Austrian writer and pacifist (of which Prospero Editore has recently republished Down with my weapons!): “I would like to have a part of my fortune to set up a prize to be awarded every five years – let’s say six times, because if they fail to reform the current system thirty years from now, they will infallibly fall back into barbarism. The prize should be awarded to the person who made Europe take the longest steps towards an idea of general pacification ”.
Alfred Nobel died in 1896, Bertha von Suttner in 1914. Europe fell back into barbarism earlier than Nobel had foreseen, and it re-established there during the Second World War. It is certain that the European project originated from the desire to guarantee peace on the continent. But at what price? In their book Eurafrica: the untold history of european integration and colonialism (Bloomsbury 2014), historians Peo Hansen and Stefan Jonsson return to the “past that Europe has forgotten”, that colonialist dimension of the European project that explains so much of the brutality with which the EU has refused to open up to a part of the world for decades .
The European Union did not deserve the Nobel Peace Prize in 2012, and less than ever it deserves it now that it has begun arming some of its personnel to keep away civilians who should be welcomed. A “dismissal ceremony” was announced for December in Brussels by the Belgian pacifist organization Agir pour la paix and the international campaign Abolish Frontex. Alfred and Bertha would appreciate.