Brussels, 09/01/2014 (Agence Europe) - The very sensitive issue of the hearing by the European Parliament civil liberties committee of Edward Snowden, the former CIA consultant behind the communications surveillance scandal, was put to the vote again on Thursday 9 January. The committee authorised the hearing by six votes to two, with one abstention.
Currently receiving temporary asylum in Russia, Snowden will not travel to Brussels or Strasbourg but will be heard by way of an “interactive” video conference. The invitation will be sent to the young American whistleblower, who will then say whether he agrees to participate in this conference or not. If he does agree, MEPs' questions will then be and a timeframe will be established for the event. If it goes ahead, the hearing will be open to all MEPs and could take place before the civil liberties committee by the “end of February”, according to Véronique Mathieu (EPP, France).
This civil liberties committee vote confirms the approval given in December by the Conference of Presidents of Groups at the EP.
The group leaders, apart from that of the ECR Group, were certainly not opposed to Snowden's being allowed to speak but left it to the civil liberties committee to agree the format of the hearing. Since then, a number of different possibilities have been proposed, such as a pre-recorded hearing, in order to avoid the possibility of the young consultant's location being identified. The EPP Group, however, requested that this hearing be carried out live so that a genuine debate takes place. Everything will be done to guarantee the safety of the man who risks a 30-year prison sentence in the US for breach of the Espionage Act and theft of state documents, according to Mathieu.
From the very beginning, the ECR Group has been opposed any intervention being made by Snowden. According to Conservatives, he has put national security at risk. Nonetheless, as indicated by Timothy Kirkhope (United Kingdom), the ECR Group would prefer that the former consultant be questioned and challenged rather than being given a platform to say what he liked. The British MEP added that, if Snowden were to testify, he would have to come out of the shadows and run the risk of having his location discovered, and that this interactive hearing would perhaps never actually take place. (SP/transl.fl)