Security Dimension of New EU External Communication: the Duplicity of Borders as Surveillance and Access Points
Security Dimension of New EU External Communication: the Duplicity of Borders as Surveillance and Access Points

Summary/Abstract: The article aims to unfold the dual feature of borders of the European Union, which are access and surveillance points in the same time. In order to reveal this dual feature we will make a synthesis of border practices, describing the inclusionary and exclusionary border practices used at the EU’s external borders. As our case studies we have chosen the Spanish-Moroccan (Ceuta and Melilla), Greek-Turkish and Russian (Kaliningrad)-EU border nexus, due to their special geopolitical status. Because nowadays border control policies are evolving within a wider discourse of securitisation, our empirical research has also targeted to pay a special attention to the repeated use of specific discourses in relation to driven governance processes both on the level of the EU as whole and on that of the member states. Particularly the saving of lives, biblical exodus of immigrants and the humanitarian emergency scenario will be put under spotlight. We wish to prove that the European Union is turning into a gated community and the metaphor of Fortress Europe is not appropriate any more to describe the EU (in matters of border security and immigration policy), which combines restrictive measures with selective permeability, constraining access to those who are considered as threats or useless elements, but facilitating the entrance for those who bring benefits to the European club of welfare.

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