In a reply to MEP Mounir Satouri (Greens/EFA, France) dated 8 February, President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen announced that her services were in contact with France to clarify the circumstances in which French companies have been exporting cybersurveillance equipment to Egypt as well as their compliance with EU export regulations due to the state of human rights in the country.
Mrs von der Leyen specifies in a letter disclosed by EUobserver that the revised regulation on dual-use items (2021/821), which came into force in September, “explicitly” stipulates that, with regard to cybersurveillance devices, the competent authorities of the Member States should consider in particular the risk that they may be used in connection with internal repression or the commission of serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law.
“[T]he competent dual-use authorities of the Member States are responsible for deciding on a case-by-case basis whether or not to grant an authorisation for the export of a specific item, and [...] the Commission is not involved in such decisions,” states the president by way of reminder, while emphasising the European Commission’s responsibility as far as the correct application of EU legislation is concerned, thereby justifying her request for clarification.
In a written question dated 1 December 2021 (https://bit.ly/3sweqex ), Mr Satouri wondered whether the apparent authorisation of the French department that controls [exports of] dual-use items concerning surveillance software, a telephone surveillance and geolocation system, and the search engine Exalead was in compliance with the EU regulation.
Questioned by Mr Satouri on Member States’ arms exports to certain non-EU countries in the European Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs on 7 February, French Minister for the Armed Forces Florence Parly explained that France was “very keen to ensure that the rules that the EU has in this area are respected”. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)