Targeted Surveillance: Can Privacy and Surveillance Be Reconciled?

• Author: Edoardo Celeste - Federico Fabbrini
• Profession: Lecturer in Privacy Law at Dublin City University - Full Professor of EU Law at Dublin City University and Director of the DCU Brexit Institute
• Pages: 295-307

295

22. TARGETED SURVEILLANCE:

CAN PRIVACY AND

SURVEILLANCE BE

RECONCILED?

Edoardo Celeste & Federico Fabbrini

1. Introduction

Striking the balance between the protection of fundamental rights

and the need to protect national security has been a challenge for

all liberal democracies in times of emergency. e same is true also

for the European Union (EU). In fact, since the launch 20 years ago

of the 1999 Tampere programme, implementing the 1997 Treaty of

Amsterdam, the EU has developed a common policy in the area

of Freedom, Security and Justice (AFSJ), which led to the adop-

tion of important pieces of legislation also concerning the ght

against crime and international terrorism. At the same time, how-

ever, since 2000, the EU has been endowed with an advanced and

comprehensive Charter of Fundamental Rights, which was given

full primary law status by the 2009 Treaty of Lisbon.

As a result, in the last decade, the European Court of Justice

has been faced repeatedly with the question of how to reconcile

security and justice, contributing to the constitutionalisation of

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