The European Parliament’s spyware inquiry committee, called PEGA, voted through its final report and recommendations on Monday, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
The report passed on a 30-3 vote, with four abstentions, while the recommendations passed on a 30-5 vote, with two abstentions, according to officials.
The documents follow a yearlong inquiry into the abuse of Pegasus and equivalent surveillance spyware in the EU, the PAP news agency reported.
MEPs call for EU rules on spyware use by law enforcement
MEPs condemned “spyware abuses that aim to intimidate political opposition, silence critical media and manipulate elections,” noting that “EU governance structures cannot effectively deal with such attacks and … reforms are needed.”
The European Parliament committee condemned “major violations of EU law in Poland and Hungary, where the respective governments have dismantled independent oversight mechanisms.”
MEPs concluded that in Poland, the use of Pegasus had been part of “a system for the surveillance of the opposition and critics of the government -- designed to keep the ruling majority and the government in power.”
To remedy the situation, MEPs called on Poland, as well as Hungary, “to comply with European Court of Human Rights judgements and restore judicial independence and oversight bodies.”
The committee called for “EU rules on the use of spyware by law enforcement, which should only be authorised in exceptional cases for a pre-defined purpose and a limited time.”
MEPs argued that “data falling under lawyer-client privilege or belonging to politicians, doctors or the media should be shielded from surveillance, unless there is evidence of criminal activity.”
Dominik Tarczyński, a MEP with Poland’s ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party, criticised the committee’s findings and recommendations as “designed to confirm a prior assumption.”
He said the committee had from the outset attempted to demonstrate that countries such as Poland and Hungary, which are “persecuted in the EU due to alleged rule-of-law shortcomings,” had been “routinely abusing spyware” to constrain civic freedoms, crack down on opposition and build an authoritarian system.
Tarczyński also argued that “the EU should not interfere in any way in the national security affairs of member states.”
The European Parliament is expected to vote on the spyware inquiry committee’s report and recommendations at a plenary session commencing on June 12, the PAP news agency reported.
(pm/gs)
Source: PAP, wpolityce.pl, europarl.europa.eu