The chairman of the European Parliament’s committee of inquiry on spyware (PEGA) and the rapporteur on the subject, the Dutch Jeroen Lenaers (EPP) and Sophie in 't Veld (Renew Europe), promised on Tuesday 9 May, the day after the adoption of two draft reports and recommendations (see EUROPE 13177/1), to keep up the pressure on Member States and to continue to support victims or whistleblowers with regard to spyware, even though PEGA’s work is officially over.
“The investigation is over, but we will continue to ask questions, to support those who are investigating, we will not give up until justice has been done”, said the rapporteur, stressing the moral obligation of the Commission and the Council of the EU to address this issue.
“If they let this [the illegal use of software] go, they are complicit in the destruction of democracy”, she said.
On Monday 8 May, the members of the committee of inquiry approved by a large majority a report on the use of such software in certain Member States, such as Greece, Spain, Poland and Hungary, and developed recommendations to regulate it or to provide victims with effective means of redress.
In particular, they called for a common basis for defining national security and proposed that spyware should only be allowed in Member States “where allegations of abuse have been thoroughly investigated, where national legislation is in line with the recommendations of the Venice Commission and the case law of the European Court of Justice and the European Court of Human Rights, and where Europol is involved in the investigations”.
By December 2023, the Commission “shall assess in a public report whether these conditions have been met”.
MEPs also want EU rules on the use of spyware by law enforcement agencies, which will only be possible in exceptional cases for predefined purposes and for a limited time.
They still want an in-depth investigation of spyware export licences and a stricter application of EU export control rules.
The two texts remain non-binding and there is no guarantee that Member States will apply these recommendations, as cooperation with national governments has been so difficult, or even non-existent in some cases, the two PEGA leaders said on Tuesday.
Both texts will be submitted to the plenary on 12 June.
Links to adopted texts: https://aeur.eu/f/6su ; https://aeur.eu/f/6sv (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)