A leading member of the European Parliament on Wednesday condemned Europe’s governing bodies for not doing more to address rampant spyware abuses across the continent.
Parliamentarian Sophie in’t Veld, who led the European Parliament’s investigation into the use of spyware in Spain, Greece and Poland, said European governments haven’t curtailed it because they lack the political will to act.
“They know what they have to do,” in’t Veld said. “The problem is they don’t want to do it.”
“They kind of like their little toy and they’re very reluctant to give it up,” she added, speaking at a panel hosted by the Center for Democracy and Technology, a digital rights advocacy group.
in’t Veld also condemned Europe for exporting spyware to other countries.
A general moratorium or ban on spyware in Europe is not under discussion, said Anna Buchta, a senior official with the European Data Protection Supervisor, because many governments want to keep using the tools for law enforcement and national security purposes. That’s despite a checkered history of abuse in countries across the continent, she said.
“There is a temptation to just see this as yet another lawful intercept technology,” Buchta said. “We have tried to make the point that it’s not just another tool — this is a paradigm shift.”
Commercial spyware such as the NSO Group’s Pegasus, which has been deployed against opposition politicians, journalists and other targets across Europe, “brings the intensity and the seriousness of interference with the private life to such a level that it really cannot be compared to a traditional interception of communication,” she added.
She said many European states have hidden behind language in the Treaty on the European Union (TEU), the EU’s mutual defense clause, to argue that they have the right to deploy Pegasus to protect their national security interests.
But in’t Veld and Buchta questioned those assertions, with Buchta saying there is a body of case law in Europe’s Court of Justice that suggests mutual defense and national security concerns “cannot be treated as a blank check.”
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