To conserve and expand civil rights and freedoms are posing a vital challenge for us. Because of the rising number of surveillance measures, which are imposed on us in reference to “international terror” and other “threats” and which rarely hold up in court, there is a grave need for action.

To preserve our historical heritage of freedom rights and to ensure the effectiveness of the security and law enforcement, we advocate that a public information collection, control and monitoring is in the future only targeted at people who are concretely suspected of committing or preparing a crime. To protect our open society and in the interest of an efficient security policy, we want to give up automated data collection, data storage and data matching. In a free Europe such a wide detection of many innocent people is unacceptable and harmful.

Adequate protection against crime is an important task for the state. In our opinion he has to ensure this task only through an intelligent, rational and evidence-based security policy based on scientific evidence.

To encourage wise safety measures and stop harmful measures, we want that the European Fundamental Rights Agency examines all existing European powers and programs of security agencies systematically and according to scientific criteria of effectiveness, cost, adverse side effects, the alternatives and their compatibility with our fundamental rights (systematic evaluation).We want to equip the European Agency for Fundamental Rights in such a way that they can accomplish this task.

We want to abolish unnecessary and excessive surveillance of the EU, including:

• suspicionless, widespread retention of all telephone, cell phone, e-mail and Internet Connections
• the use of biometrics in passports and visas, also with asylum seekers
• the transfer of passenger and payment data to third countries such as the USA and generally, the delivery of personal data to countries without effective protection of fundamental rights
• the compulsory introduction of digital metering devices (“smart meters”) without the affected persons having a choice
• the enhanced surveillance of external borders (“Eurosur”)
• the cross-border access to police data (“principle of availability”) without a strong and effective European data protection and protection of fundamental rights.

We want to stop the progressive dismantling of civil rights, that has taken dramatic proportions since 2001. We advocate a moratorium on any further interference with our human rights in the name of internal security, as long as the systematic review of existing powers is not completed. To ensure our safety, we do not need new laws, existing laws are sufficient.

In particular we reject:

• the disclosure and retention of data from electronic passenger records when traveling in the EU by monitoring authorities (“EU PNR”)
• electronic recording of all persons from non-EU countries that enter and leave to Europe, and the introduction of a licensing system for visa-exempt persons (“Smart Borders”)
• automated profiling of people to divide them into risk categories (“profiling”), or other mass data analysis
• systematic monitoring of payments or restrictions of the identification-free payments with cash or electronic cash
• an EU-US agreement on data on the basis of the completely inadequate mandate of the European Council.

We demand that the European Commission and the Council should in the future send any proposal for new security measures currently in draft to the European Agency for Fundamental Rights to examine its compatibility with our fundamental rights, its efficacy, its costs, its harmful side effects and alternatives. Only through such a “law-stamp” the progressive erosion of our fundamental rights and the use of false security resources can be counteracted in an effective way.

In principle, we PIRATES support the funding of research through the EU. However, this funding must not be misused as hidden subisidy for security and defence companies whose business model relies on expanding the indiscriminate surveillance of the population. The frequent involvement of government agencies in surveillance and filtering operations like INDECT and CleanIT demonstrates a clear intention to use such technologies in a way which makes them publicly funded tools for dismantling civil rights. We therefore argue that the EU must not fund problematic technologies suitable to limit fundamental rights.

We intend to democratize publicly funded security research across the EU and align it with the needs and rights of the european population. Advisory bodies such as the European Security Research and Innovation Forum need to include not only administrative and industrial representatives, but an equal number of representatives from parliamental groups, criminologists and victim's associations as well as non-governmental organizations to effectively protect civil liberties and privacy. Requests for tender must not be issued before an impact assessment about the implications of said project is conducted and evaluated by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights.

We reject further development of technolgies aimed at expanding surveillance and supervision of the population. Instead, security research must extend to and focus on the prevention of crime and avoidable public disaster and provide independent evaluation of the efficiency, costs, and drawbacks of a proposed measure as well as a review of any viable alternatives. Because a subjective feeling of safety is a requirement to our general well-being, we intend to support research on how the public understanding of security can be improved upon and the distorted view and portrayal of public safety can be countered.

We PIRATES oppose the production, maintenance and support of surveillance software. We condemn trading in such technologies as well as the provision of services to help establish or run surveillance operations. Surveillance software includes any software which enables external parties to gain access to confidential and non-public data, communications and activities stored on an electronic device without the knowledge of its actual users. This is important because surveillance software is used in the European Union and the worldwide to overturn fundamental human rights, like the right to privacy, often in order to track, imprison or even torture dissidents and fight democratic movements.

In order to actively take measures against surveillance software, we PIRATES demand that manufacturers of and service providers to these tools are required by law to disclose comprehensive information about their products, business partners and customers. Furthermore we demand a legal obligation to release the complete source code of said software not only to the supervising parliamentary body, but the general public.

The emerging EU Data Protection Regulation should not lead to a lowering of data protection standards, but must strengthen the rights of European citizens in all European countries. It shall be ruled out that, for example, Facebook in Ireland can escape effective supervision and control.

The use of personal data for data trade, advertising or market or opinion research must be allowed only with the consent of the person concerned. Therefore, the Pirate Party calls for the removal without replacement of any private access privileges on officially collected data. The European data protection law must take this into account and include a mandatory reservation of consent.

To guarantee within the meaning of informational self-determination, a real freedom of choice in the use of the Internet, all products and services that are provided or suitable for the processing of personal data, must be preinstalled in a privacy-friendly way (Privacy by default). Privacy policy must be incorporated from the outset in the development of new communication and information technologies (Privacy by Design).

The direct access to personal data and live communication of European citizens and businesses on the Internet by American intelligence clearly shows that there is a great need for action at the international level. Here we want to take measures to protect personal data, the privacy of citizens and their free development of personality and to prevent industrial espionage in the future.

We PIRATES will campaign for a Europe-wide policy that achieves at least the highest existing level of data protection in Europe and that takes into account the demands named above.

PIRATES propose a fundamental reform of the EU-policy on refugees and asylum. Any “full boat” ideology is unacceptable. The European approach must be based on the acknowledgement of human rights and fully respect the Geneva Convention on Refugees and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

All member-states must accept refugees and asylum-seekers according to their capacity. No individual member-state should be left alone with the financial, logistic and administrative burden; European solidarity is called for instead. “Frontex”, the Agency for the control of EU-borders, which often violates international law and human rights, is an incarnation of the European Union's misanthropic exclusion policy. PIRATES demand to dismantle the Agency altogether.

EU-neigbourhood-policy and EU-development policy must be geared towards lasting improvement of living conditions and focus on the promotion of human rights in all partner -countries and -regions. We denounce all tendencies to create a repressive apparatus of survey and control in Europe.

We PIRATES advocate for a general and comprehensive legislation, which shall be valid in all member states, to protect persons who report cases of corruption, insider trading, or disclose ethics violations (“whistle-blower”).

Essential foodstuffs and water constitute the basis of life for all people. Too often, their price and availability become issues of life and death. Consequently, we PIRATES want to ban all trading in food and related agricultural commodities that is not concerned with producing and distributing food for consumption. Details need to be regulated by international treaties which guarantee that commodity futures always lead to physical deliveries and which prohibit contracts for margin differences, options, short sales and other derivatives.

We PIRATES want the European Union to pass legislation modeled after the Calfornia Transparency in Supply Chains Act which would oblige large corporations with an annual revenue of at least 100 Million Euro to disclose their measures taken against human trafficking, slavery, forced and child labor and debt bondage in their chain of supply.

We PIRATES consider self-determination of the people and privacy as self-evident. Therefore they also need to be respected and promoted in the context of trade agreements. As those principles apply to all people, the EU has to make sure that trade agreements will not allow their trading partners to breach them. On this account, we refuse to accept control mechanisms in trade agreements which contradict this position.

The current “European Strategy on Drugs” focuses on drug prohibition and to push the consumption of drugs into illegality. But the “war on drugs” has failed. It needs to be replaced with an accepting and humane drug policy which respects without prejudice an indivual's ability to make informed decisions and relies on education to prevent abuse and harmful behaviour.

We PIRATES want a drug policy which which allows for legal means to supply users and does not punish the cultivation, production, purchase or possession of drugs for personal use, nor their consumption. Consumers shall not be brought into contact with organized crime any longer, so we can institute meaningful ways to protect the immature and prevent additional and unneccesary harm caused by the absence of quality control. Sparing the addicted the descent into a life of crime helps facilitate their recovery.

To further decriminalize the common practive of cannabis consumption, an open approach to deal with so called “Cannabis Social Clubs”, in which members grow a limited amount of cannabis for personal use, must be found. Cannabinoid-containing medications must be free for medicinal use without special restrictions.

As long as a considerable amount of consumed drugs is acquired from illegal sources, harm reduction measures, such as drug checking, need to be easily available and low-risk behaviour should be promoted.

The primary goal of drug policy must be the prevention of harmful consumption patterns. When these patterns are already present, we have to reach out and offer support. Addiction must be recognized as an illness across Europe, and the rights and dignity of addicts should be respected. Common standards for drug-related treatments are a neccesary prerequisite.

International agreements have to allow for the decriminalisation of drug consumers and make it possible to offer legal opportunities to obtain drugs. This is the only way to effectively combat organised crime. International agreements which prevent such a policy have to be terminated as soon as possible and no new agreements like that shall be negotiated.

We PIRATES will campaign for the European Union leading the way in this regard.

• Anonymity. We demand the right of anonymity. There must be guaranteed anonymity built into all apparatus used for watching people; following identifiable people should require their explicit voluntary agreement.

• Privacy. We may accept surveillance of citizens in a public space only in clearly defined cases and only at the necessary minimum level (goldsmith's, offices, car park etc.). People must be informed about the rules for using the collected personal information, maximum storage time and the deletion policy. We reject further exchange of the collected data, especially in automatic ways.

• Security. Centralized databases run by the state, e.g. health registry, are at risk of leaks and abuse of sensitive information. We demand that citizens must retain control of their personal information and that it must be properly secured.

• Safeguards against abuse. In addition, everyone who was specifically followed or had his/her data accessed by the state official(s) should be informed of these facts in due time.

• Prohibition of wide interception of communications. The European directive on storing data dictates watching and storing information about all telecommunications connections and also about movement of all cellphones. We, in cooperation with other European pirate parties, seek the abolishment of this directive.

• Prohibition of wide spying (cameras, communication, mobile phones etc.). Public spaces are full of cameras that allow watching movement, face identification, and connection with information about traffic without acceptable reasons for this kind of encroachment on privacy. In addition, studies show that the presence of cameras has minimum effect on criminality, or criminality simply moves to other places. This is why we support and prioritise police personnel moving from watching the cameras to walking the streets.

• Prohibition of electronic and biological spying. Routine checks must not unreasonably interfere with privacy, so we reject „stripping“ with help of electronic scanners, perusal of private data on electronic devices and other similar invasive procedures. We oppose wide biological material collection from innocent citizens and its storage in central databases.