The European Commission will continue to analyse the European scope of the scandal that erupted in Greece this summer over the illegal tapping of political opponents by the government of Kyriákos Mitsotákis using Predator spyware, it said on 25 August.
On 29 July, the Commission had sent a letter to Athens on the use of this software, to which the Greek government replied on 2 August. This response was made public on 25 August by the Permanent Representation of Greece to the EU.
In the letter, the Permanent Representation of Greece denies that the Greek security services have used the software created by the North Macedonian company Cytrox or contravened EU data protection regulations. It claims that Greek laws governing the practice of wiretapping to prevent crime are among the strictest in the world.
The Greek government has been in the hot seat since the revelations about the tapping of opposition leader Níkos Androulákis by the Greek intelligence services. While national security is a Member State competence, the Commission wants to ensure that any use of software such as Predator is in full compliance with “European legislation and case law”, it said, thus justifying a competence in this area.
The Greek government has already been accused of using Predator to eavesdrop on journalists. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)