The non-governmental organisations Amnesty International, Access Now and Reporters Without Borders called upon the member states on Monday 29 October to support the Commission's proposals to prevent exports of technologies that can be used for cyber-surveillance to authoritarian countries.
The revision of the regulation on controls on dual-use products – products and technologies that can be used for both civilian and military purposes – was launched in 2016 but is still on ice, pending the position of the Council of the EU, even though the European Parliament reached its position in January (see EUROPE 11941).
The joint press release by the three NGOs follows the publication on the same day of internal Council documents on the militant blog netzpolitik.org. These documents highlight the role of Finland and Sweden, supported by Ireland, Italy, Poland and the United Kingdom, which are calling for international action rather than at European level and highlight the risk of hampering European competitiveness.
The three NGOs consider that these member states are under pressure from the cyber-surveillance industry. “It is devastating to see that protecting the privacy of individuals and safeguarding freedom of expression around the globe are not on the list of priorities of the Council”, said Lucie Krahulcolva, on behalf of Access Now.
At front and centre of the debate is the 'human rights' clause proposed by the Commission, which aims to set out binding rules for the States with the aim of establishing a list of technologies that cannot be exported due to their potential danger to human rights. These States consider it to be of little value.
The member states may reach their negotiating position in the course of November. (Original version in French by Mathieu Solal)