At a hearing of the European Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties on Tuesday 24 February, Olivier Onidi, Deputy Director-General for Schengen and Internal Security at the European Commission, Jürgen Ebner, Deputy Director of Europol, and Max Braun, Director of the Financial Intelligence Unit in Luxembourg, defended access to personal data for European judicial and police services, stressing the urgent need to fill the “operational gaps” that currently stall 30% of investigations due to a lack of available data.
Mr Ebner warned that the balance between security and privacy is shifting, pointing out that criminal networks are migrating en masse to consumer applications such as WhatsApp and Signal. As a result, digital data has become “the raw material of every single investigation”, added Mr Onidi.
The Director of Europol argued for lawful access to data through a “front door” under strict judicial control, rather than through “back doors”. For his part, Mr Braun cited the financial sector as a model of success, where public-private cooperation already provides standardised, digitised access to data.
Several MEPs expressed concerns about a potential breach in personal data protection system. Raquel Garcia Hermida-van der Walle (Renew Europe, Dutch) asked about the impact on end-to-end encryption: “The moment we have a front door to bypass encryption, it means that encryption is broken”, she pointed out, fearing that these tools could be used to target political opposition figures or journalists. Saskia Bricmont (Greens/EFA, Belgian) called for “proportionality and necessity” to be respected, expressing concern about the risks of “mass surveillance” linked to artificial intelligence.
Birgit Sippel (S&D, German) criticised the “nothing to hide” argument, pointing out that the right to privacy online must be equal to the right to privacy at home. She also pointed out that the problem sometimes lies in the insufficient exchange of information between authorities rather than the absence of data. Moritz Körner (Renew Europe, German) also asked for evidence of a “causal effect” between access to data and the success of investigations.
In response, the Commission has promised an imminent impact assessment report to justify the need for harmonisation of data retention at European level. (Original version in French by Justine Manaud)