Strasbourg, 05/07/2000 (Agence Europe) - With the adoption of the proposal by its conference of presidents of the political groups, the European Parliament formed a temporary committee on the Echelon interception system. This committee is entrusted with the task of verifying the existence of the system and its compatibility with Community law on the basis of the following questions: - are citizens' rights protected against the activities of secret agents? - does encryption provide adequate protection of the private lives of citizens or should additional measures be taken? - how should the awareness of European institutions be heightened regarding risks caused by these activities and what measures should be taken? The temporary committee is also expected to verify whether the global interception of communications creates risks for the European industry and, where necessary, propose political and legislative initiatives.
The temporary committee will be composed of 36 members: 14 EPP/ED (Ms Banotti, Ms Klamt Ms Cederschiöld, Ms Palacio, Messrs von Bötticher, Coelho, Deprez, Dimitrakopoulos, Hernandez Mollar, Hugues Martin, Oostlander, Pirker, Van Velzen and Zappalà), 11 PES (Ms Berger, Ms Karamanou, Ms Lalumière, Ms Erika Mann, Messrs Robert Evans, Lund, Medina, Paasilinna, Gerhard Schmid, Vattimo and Wiersma), 3 ELDR (Mr Di Pietro, Ms Flesch and Ms Plooij-van Gorsel); 3 V/ALE (Messrs Ceyhun and MacCormick and Ms McKenna), 2 GUE/NGL (Messrs Di Lello, Finuoli and Krivine), 1 UEN (Mr Berthu), 1 TDI (Mr Turco) and 1 EDD (Mr Belder).
During this vote, Belgian Green member Paul Lannoye and French Communist Francis Wurtz again insisted on forming a committee of inquiry but the EP preferred to confirm, with 340 votes for (the large majority of the EPP/ED, PES and ELDR groups), 210 against (the V/ALE, GUE/NGL, UEN and EDD groups as well as the French nationals of the EPP and PES groups) and 15 abstentions, the decision by the Conference of Presidents not to follow up this request which had originally received support from 171 MEPs, and to create the temporary committee (with less powers). The Parliament, moreover, rejected all the amendments of British Liberal Graham Watson, who mainly called for extension of the temporary committee's mandate to all interception systems likely not to heed the right to protection of privacy.