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How Europe eavesdrops on citizens

2022-11-10 18:33:02Kosova&Bota SHKRUAR NGA BARBARA WESEL
How Europe eavesdrops on citizens
How Europe eavesdrops on citizens

EU: Spy software is used in many member countries, which are misused politically. This comes from a preliminary report of the EU Parliament. According to the report, democratic rights in the EU are at risk.

When Elon Musk bought Twitter, the EU Commissioner for the European Internal Market, Thierry Breton, immediately demanded that the US short news service, Twitter, adhere to European Union rules. But, when European governments misuse spy software, the institutions of Brussels are not interested at all, criticizes the rapporteur of the so-called Pega Committee of the European Parliament, the European deputy from the Netherlands, Sophie in 't Veld. Meanwhile, democratic rights are seriously endangered when many EU member states use Pegasuas and other similar software without control and spy on government critics, journalists and opposition under the shield of national security.  

Spyware is a European affair

"The abuse is a Europe-wide affair," says the unfinished report of the Commission of Inquiry, presented on Tuesday (08.11) by Sophie in 't Veld. "Member countries have used surveillance software against their citizens, for political reasons as well as to hide corruption and criminal activities.” Since none of the national authorities have been willing to provide concrete information to the EU Parliament, the report is based only on sources open to the public.

However, the Committee thinks, many facts have been gathered. "If there are 1,000 unknown puzzles, we have 900 of them in our hands," says Sophie in 't Veld. It can be said that all European countries have bought spyware and some of them have even made a profitable trade with it. Cyprus and Bulgaria have turned into export centers, Ireland offers software to adjust taxes. And Luxembourg is the financial center for many players from the manufacturing countries." The so-called Wiretapper's Ball, a dance evening that is organized every year by this industry, takes place in Prague and Malta is rated by the protagonists as a favorite place to stay.

How Europe eavesdrops on citizens
Sophie in 't Veld

The best-known example is the Israeli firm NSO, which produces the Pegasus spy software, a software that caused a political scandal in Greece. The company has subsidiaries in Cyprus and Bulgaria and has carried out its financial activities through Luxembourg. It has benefited from the internal market and freedom of movement within the EU. The sale of software is purposefully done in a non-transparent manner and the company's structures are complex, says the newly presented report - but "the business is booming and very profitable".

Greece, Hungary, Poland - the doubts do not go away

The most well-known victim of the eavesdropping of opposition politicians and journalists in Greece is the chairman of the social democrats of Pasok, and the European deputy Nikos Androulakis. His cell phone was infected with the spying software, Predator.

Meanwhile, the list of people who are thought to have been affected grows longer and longer. Finally, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis repeated once again that he has nothing to do with the latest accusations. "It is a shame to claim that the prime minister eavesdropped on his ministers," he told ANT1 television.

But Nikos Marantzidis, a media expert at the University of Macedonia in Thessaloniki, says that the prime minister is responsible: "At first he said that everything is done according to the law, but now he says that he managed to avoid the problems he had with Pegasus and Predator . It is impossible to believe all the statements.”

But the worst thing is that the affair has shaken the faith of many Greeks in the democratic constitutionality of the country: "Many people are shocked, because we are entering an authoritarian phase again". Meanwhile, the Greek government wants to stop the sale of such software of espionage.

The report of the European Parliament deals in detail with the governments of Budapest and Warsaw. Hungary was one of the first countries embroiled in the European wiretapping scandal. According to the announcements of the human rights organization, Amnesty International, over 300 political activists, journalists, lawyers and others were intercepted there. "The use of Pegasus appears to be part of a well-thought-out strategy to destroy the press and freedom of thought by the (Hungarian) government," the report added.

Since last year, Poland has expanded the legal possibilities to make almost unlimited interceptions. "Victims' rights have been minimized and legal remedies to combat wiretapping have become virtually irrelevant," the investigative report says. Government parties have everything under control and victims have nowhere to go to seek their rights.

New rules and controls on surveillance technologies are needed

Meanwhile, Amnesty International has collected 100,000 signatures for a petition addressed to the United Nations, demanding a ban on the sale and distribution of spy software. "There is an urgent need to better protect human rights when exporting surveillance technologies," writes Amnesty's director, Agnès Callamard. "We are experiencing a global surveillance software crisis, where deliberate attacks against the private sphere of journalists, activists and lawyers are used to silence and instill fear." UN members must no longer use or tolerate software as instruments of oppression.

A temporary ban is also requested by the rapporteur of the Pega Committee of the European Parliament. In addition, Sophie in 't Veld demands that all allegations be investigated to the end by Interpol better, as well as the replacement of the framework for the legal use and export licenses of suspected surveillance software. The MP herself admits that there is no mechanism for implementing the new rules./ DW


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