MEPs criticised, on Thursday 16 March in plenary session, the European Commission’s failure to play the game of “mutual sincere cooperation” with the European Parliament regarding the scandal over the use of spyware in the EU on citizens and politicians.
The Commission is failing in particular by not putting enough pressure on Member States to also cooperate with the European Parliament and by not launching infringement proceedings against Member States when the use of spyware is a “Rule of law” issue where the Commission has competences, said Jeroen Lenaers (EPP, NL), Chair of the European Parliament’s PEGA Committee of Inquiry into spyware such as Pegasus or Predator.
MEPs wanted to put a specific question on the subject to the Commission as the work in PEGA is complicated by the lack of answers from Member States on how they supervise the use of such software.
In particular, the European Parliament sent a questionnaire to the Member States in July 2022, “but only 10 Member States responded”, said the Dutch MEP. Countries such as the Netherlands, Malta, Italy and Denmark “have provided absolutely no information, this is unacceptable”, added the head of PEGA, concerned that the Commission could not do its job without this information. “However, it was not a question of asking them to reveal state secrets”, he added, deploring the fact that Member States were hiding behind the sole concept of national security.
A concept that also hinders the Commission’s ability to act, acknowledged the Commissioner for Financial Services, Mairead McGuinness.
The Commission has already condemned such invasions of privacy and called on national courts to investigate allegations of surveillance to protect “the trust of citizens”, it said; Member States, when using surveillance technologies, must also respect European rules and case law and regulate the use of such software.
To date, the Commission has acted within its competences. It has, for example, taken measures for journalists with the European Media Freedom Act, “but it has no jurisdiction in these individual cases” of eavesdropping. And when it “is done for reasons of national security, the Commission has no investigative powers”, the Commissioner reacted.
Sophie in ‘t Veld (Dutch), rapporteur of the PEGA Committee whose report will be voted on in April, criticised the Commission’s reaction when “we are facing deliberate attacks on democracy”.
Belgian MEP Saskia Bricmont (Greens/EFA), referring to the extent of Member States’ silence on this issue, deplored “a slap in the face for European democracy” when “no less than four governments” of the Member States are associated with the use of such spyware and many others are also using it. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)