MEPs discussed, on Wednesday 15 February, the Rule of law in Greece and the Greek government’s use of spyware, in this case the Israeli Predator software.
The debate was initiated by the Greek socialist, Níkos Androulákis, who was wiretapped in 2021 and has still not been able to get to the bottom of these practices. “The Greek people deserve better”, he commented, accusing the government of Prime Minister Kyriákos Mitsotákis of doing everything possible to “incriminate the victims”. He criticised the Greek government for having “twice changed the relevant legislation” so that the “targets of the wiretapping could not be informed” about these actions.
According to Mr Androulákis, these wiretapping practices are a “great danger to our liberal democracies and the greatest danger is that citizens will get used to them” and accept these violations of personal data and communications.
In Greece, the Predator software has endangered not only politicians, but also journalists and members of the armed forces.
Unsurprisingly, the debate gave rise to political invective, with EPP members defending Mr Mitsotákis questioning the “added value” of the debate, such as the Dutchman Jeroen Lenaers. He recalled that the PEGA Committee of Inquiry into surveillance spyware was already investigating the scandal. The use of spyware is “a European problem”, not the fault of any one Member State, he commented. Other EPP members considered that this debate on Greece was not necessary.
Saskia Bricmont (Greens/EFA, Belgian), on the other hand, promised that the issue of Greek actions against journalists, but also civil society organisations and migrants would remain high on the European Parliament agenda. Sophie in 't Veld (Renew Europe, Dutch), rapporteur of the PEGA committee (see EUROPE 13073/14), deplored that the Greek government “denies instead of investigating”.
Katarina Barley (S&D, German) recalled the country’s very poor press freedom rating, the worst in the EU. According to the World Press Freedom Index, Greece has moved from 70th place in 2021 to 108th place in 2022. The German MEP also recalled the still unsolved murder of an investigative journalist.
Speaking on behalf of the European Commission, Mairead McGuinness reiterated the recommendations for Greece in the annual Rule of Law Report 2022, which had identified problems related to press freedom and the safety of journalists. She said that Member States are obliged to investigate any illegal listening practices.
The Swedish Minister for EU Affairs, Jessika Roswall, reiterated that the Rule of law, and in particular the country-by-country dialogues that enable progress, remains a priority of the Swedish Presidency of the EU Council. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)