Surveillance and Power in the EU

Surveillance, understood as the collection of information about populations for supervision purposes, is a critical technique of social control. As such, it can reveal important features of the power that exercises it. The article analyses two contemporary surveillance measures in Europe: the Schengen Information System and the Directive 2006/24/ EC on data retention. The analysis aims to identify the structural characteristics of the changing power of the EU and the role security plays in it. The main thesis is that security is a key element of the legitimacy claim of the expanding power of the EU.