The EU is setting up a framework for the surveillance and monitoring of radical groups. The database has been officially labelled the "Instrument for compiling data and information on violent radicalisation processes."It is a tool that can be used against to other groups as well, including political opposition for example against EU institutions. The declared goal is to prevent terrorism early by learning about the environment in which individuals become radicalized and join certain violent groups.
David Campbell Bannerman, a member of the European Parliament, noted that "this document calls for gathering, storing and using information on 'subversives' by EU and national security agencies. How are these bodies and agencies going to compile and use the information gathered," he asked.
"The aim is to exchange information and increase the amount of information 'obtained by other, non-specific means or instruments'. Does this essentially mean by any means possible?" he said. He also expressed concern that the instrument seemed to be "strongly biased against non-EU nationals, such as immigrants from Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Could the Commission explain this?"
The document includes a section titled "Description of ideology supporting violence" where it attempts to categorize various ideologies into categories such as "extreme right/left, Islamist, nationalist, anti-globalisation, etc." The advantage of this should be better collaboration between the police, intelligence services and private security corporations of all 27 member states and institutions of the European Union itself.
It remains unclear if the instrument could categorize an entire religion as a violence fostering ideology, as some people, such as Geert Wilders has argued in the case of Islam. Left or right groups and individuals could be identified as a threat as well.
The German socialist party "Die Linke" issued an official request to the German government, concerned that the definitions in the legislative document are kept too vague. The answer to this concern was, that the participation, for example providing information to the database, is not mandatory for the single nations, and Germany will not take part in it.