The European Commission (EC) believes that EU countries cannot make uncontrolled use of surveillance software solely for fear of threats to national security.
This was reported by the European edition of the Politico newspaper, the Report reported, citing TASS.
‘The scope of the requirements for the protection of national security cannot be determined unilaterally by each member state without any control by the EU institutions,’ the EC document says.
The EC insists that spyware can only be used with court authorisation. In addition, the EC insists that the objects of surveillance must be informed about the surveillance after its completion. Brussels believes that the scope of such software should be limited to ‘serious offences such as sexual abuse of children, murder, money laundering, drug trafficking and corruption’.
The Pegasus programme in particular has been used in several EU countries. In Poland, Pegasus was used to wiretap members of the opposition. In Spain, intelligence services spied on Catalan independence supporters.
