Strasbourg, 17/04/2000 (Agence Europe) - In his letter to the President of European Parliament, to propose to the Conference of Presidents of political groups, the formation of a temporary committee to highlighted the risks of the Echelon system, the President of the Socialist group, Enrique Baron Crespo, indicated that the temporary committee should, in the next year, propose "the necessary measures so as to counter the risks for fundamental rights for citizens and for the interests of European companies following possible abuses of wide-ranging interception system of communication that are not limited to national borders." He noted that the temporary committee should have the mandate to propose: (1) political initiatives for more fair competition between the Member States who should be asked to make public their agreements with third countries, (2) initiatives aiming to prevent all forms of interception by third countries on the EU territory, (3) legislative measures to insure better protection of personal data.
Following the decision by the Conference of Presidents on the creation of the temporary committee (and not of an investigative committee), the Belgian President of the Green/ALE group, Paul Lannoye said he did not really understand why the large groups preferred the formula of a "temporary committee" to that of "investigative committee", if it is not a form of "panicked fear of inflaming certain problems." Underlining, that presently there are no expert reports written for the Stoa unit, he explained that, whatever the chosen formula, it would be necessary that this committee try to officially verify the allegations relating to the Echelon system. "If we do not ask questions, we will never get answers," he said in insisting for a true investigation. Mr. Lannoye strongly contested the mandate proposed by Mr. Baron who he felt was too limiting.
The conference of Presidents will examine the mandate during its meeting next 11 May.