Strasbourg, 24/10/2002 (Agence Europe) - The European Parliament, which is to adopt a resolution on Echelon, the global communication interception system, on 7 November in Brussels, gave a disastrous report, on Wednesday, of the measures taken to protect citizens from arbitrary tapping. During a debate devoted to this theme, MEPs criticised the Commission and the Council for not having taken into account the recommendations of the Echelon report adopted by the EP more than a year ago. (On the subject of the report by German Social Democrat Gerhard Schmid, see EUROPE of 6 September 2001).
Bertel Haarder, Danish Minister for European Affairs, announced that the Presidency will be working for the adoption of a Council resolution aimed at establishing a common strategy on network and information security matters. This proposal of resolution would mainly invite Member States to ensure that the security of information technologies holds a central place in national rules and that they take provisions in order to prevent security incidents, by finding a solution, he explained. Furthermore, the Member States should promote the partnerships between the university circles and business in order to develop safe technologies and services. Mr Haarder recalled the initiatives taken at the level of the EU since the adoption of the EP's resolution on Echelon: - The Belgian Presidency stressed the fundamental principles governing the protection of private life and the right of freedom of communication (to be found in Article 8 of the European Convention of Human Rights and Article 7 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights); - this work resulted in the adoption of the directive of 12 July concerning the processing of data of a personal nature and the protection of private life in the electronic communications sector; - the security of information technologies appears among the main priorities of the European action plan, eEUROPE 2005, which mainly aims to develop safe communication means to guarantee the security of classified information exchange from the public sector inside the Community and which provides for the establishment of a cyber-security task force. By way of conclusion, the Danish Presidency pointed out that it hoped to successfully conclude initiatives foreseen in the Action Plan.
Commissioner Erkki Liikanen admitted that it would never be possible to have total security in the field of information networks and that "there will always be shortcomings, incidents and failure that will cause damage". He recalled that the Commission in its communication on networks and information security proposes a series of measures such as: - awareness campaigns (benchmarking of national policies to promote secure e-commerce) and improved information exchange mechanisms. The Commission also announced initiatives to ensure compatibility between data protection and the private sphere, on one hand, and application of the law, on the other. To this end, a European forum on cybercrime has been created. Being a question of the interception of communications for criminal investigation purposes, the Commission considers that the rules included in the EU convention on mutual legal assistance in criminal matters "gives a balanced approach at the present time".
Christian Ulrich Von Boetticher, speaking on behalf of the EPP-ED Group, noted that the Commission had done nothing for one year regarding citizen information and the encoding of electronic mail. "What interests me is to see what is being done within the Commission itself on the subject of security for persons and classification of documents", he said. On behalf of the Socialist Group, Jan Marinus Wiersma regretted that the Commission had not provided information on the international aspects of the problem. Elly Plooij-van Gorsel stressed that the aim of the Liberal Group was to protect not only citizens but also the economic interests of the EU (industrial spying). She, too, asked what the Council and the Commission had done in the field of developing encoding software. "I have the impression that very few of all our recommendations have been implemented", she concluded. "Nothing has been done to protect the citizens against the problem of tapping", added Giuseppe Di Lello (GUE), who felt "we have used time and human resources to amount to very little". In his view, the Commission and Council should reflect on a framework decision protecting citizens from arbitrary tapping and providing for the possibility to have recourse to national courts. Patricia Mc Kenna (Greens/EFA) finds it "regrettable that nothing has happened since the EP's Echelon report was adopted" and she called on the Council to adopt a framework decision that provides protection for intelligence services and activities in third countries. "The very existence of these systems allowing for indiscriminate interception of communications is equal to violation of Article 6 of the EU Treaty, as the Commission itself has recognised", she exclaimed. Ms Mc Kenna called for an agreement to be signed between the EU and the United States providing for each party to observe the principles of protection for citizens and confidentiality of business transactions.
The Greens are firmly opposed to several measures adopted by the Council, she pointed out, mainly citing the directive whereby Member States may adopt legislative measures for retaining data during an indefinite duration of time. In her opinion, encryption cannot replace the search for political solutions, stricter legal guarantees and real parliamentary control.
Mr Liikanen responded recalling various initiatives taken by the Commission since the EP's report on Echelon, mainly in the following fields: - cybersecurity (a proposal is expected by December at the latest); - research work on encryption technology; - the development of open source software; - and encryption of electronic mail (the budgetary line is unfortunately limited to EUR 1 million, he said). He concluded by saying he agreed in accepting the criticism but "if you say nothing has been done, I must be a very bad communicator".