Javaid Iqbal was so upset when he was accused of being a terrorist that he burst into tears.

His name was recorded on America’s “no-fly” list and his whole family’s holiday was ruined when aggressive US immigration officers cancelled their return tickets from Orlando to Manchester. British officials had been a little kinder, allowing Javaid to travel to Disney World. The seven-year-old’s trip had been a reward for good school work.

Photograph: Reuters

Javaid Iqbal’s only offence was having the same name as an alleged terror suspect who had previously been deported from America. According to some critics, his ordeal was a glimpse of things to come in Europe unless the seemingly relentless march to a Big Brother society since 9/11 is not halted by a dose of common sense.

One person’s common sense, however, is another’s woolly liberalism – and opponents of the EU’s increasingly invasive security measures sometimes feel that they are on a hiding to nothing in trying to hold back the anti-terror tide.

Where exactly should Europe draw the line between protecting civil liberties on the one hand and protecting its citizens from terrorists on the other? It is perhaps the key debate of our age. There can be no doubt of the seriousness of the terror threat facing European countries after the murderous London and Madrid bombings and plots foiled this year in Germany and Denmark.

A framework for greater cooperation and further action was agreed under the EU’s counter-terrorism strategy, signed by the European Council in 2005 during the British presidency and in the wake of the July 7 2005 London bombings which claimed 52 lives.

But the European Commission did not stop there. It has pushed through further measures, not least the restrictions on liquids that can be carried in hand luggage, introduced a year ago following an alleged aircraft terror plot, foiled by British police, to concoct an explosive mixture in mid-air. There is also the plan for an EU fingerprint database contained in the Commission work programme for 2008 but as yet lacking any further detail.

A fresh wave of anti-terror precautions will be unveiled in early November by Franco Frattini, the commissioner for justice, freedom and security. He will detail a crackdown on internet sites providing bomb-making tips and propose a European air-passenger name record (PNR) data analysis system similar to the one set up in the United States after the attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon.

With the Commission seemingly determined to usher in ever more int......