Spyware-targeted MEPs, including the Greek opposition leader and Catalan separatists, will not be invited to speak at next week’s Pegasus Committee hearing in the European Parliament.
The delay follows what some EU officials have called “political games,” in comments to EURACTIV.
Greece will be the focus of the upcoming hearing of the PEGA committee, scheduled for next Thursday (8 September), following revelations that the Greek intelligence service attempted to tap opposition leader and MEP Nikos Androulakis’ phone using spyware.
However, Androulakis will not speak at the session, and will instead be invited as a panellist to a later session by the Pegasus committee, together with other targeted MEPs, on 6 October.
One EU official told EURACTIV that the conservative European People’s Party (EPP), with which the Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis is aligned, pushed for also inviting Catalan separatist MEPs targeted with spyware to next week’s hearing.
The so-called Catalangate, the espionage of over 60 figures of the Catalan independence movement, uncovered by Citizen Lab in April this year, has so far not been a major focus of the European Parliament’s inquiries.
“Including Catalan MEPs […] would have decreased the time available to talk about Greece,” the EU official told EURACTIV, explaining why it was understandable why the Socialists and Democrats (S&D) group would want to only hear from Androulakis, and not anyone else.
Another EU official confirmed to EURACTIV that the S&D group, with which the Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez is aligned, would rather not hear from the Catalans.
Erika Casajoana i Daunert, deputy representative of the Catalan Government to the EU, told EURACTIV: “Pegasus or Catalangate is a tremendous scandal in domestic politics, with the potential to destabilise the government even further.”
In the end, with the support of the Greens, it was decided that there would be a separate hearing with affected MEPs on 6 October and that neither the Greek nor the Catalan MEPs would be speaking on 8 September.
The official reason why the Greek and Catalan MEPs will be heard later is to “treat MEPs equally”, EURACTIV was told by various EU sources.
EU's competences to handle spyware abuse in question
The issue of the EU’s competences to scrutinize spyware use came to the forefront during Thursday’s Pegasus Committee hearing, where an Europol representative said the agency’s mandate was limited to supporting member states choosing to launch an investigation.
Procrastinating the hearings on both the Catalan and the Greek scandals involving opposition politicians plays into the countries’ broader unwillingness to investigate and for the EU to interfere.
While in Greece, the director of the intelligence services and the secretary general of the prime minister’s office both resigned after the wiretapping scandal against Androulakis broke, Mitsotakis argued the surveillance was “lawful”, although “wrong”.
Greece also aims to keep the EU from interfering, citing national security interests. Meanwhile, the EU is considering using presumably breached EU laws, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), as a way to prove the EU’s competence to investigate.
Slight correction to @vrailas: the spyware scandal is very much European competence. That is why @Europarl_EN @EP_PegaInquiry is investigating. Apart from violating EU laws, ao #GDPR, MEPs and @EU_Commission officials were targeted. And natl gvts are part of the Council. https://t.co/xYhy0CTsl8
— Sophie in 't Veld (@SophieintVeld) August 24, 2022
Sophie in ‘t Veld, the Parliament’s rapporteur on the Pegasus inquiry, pushed back against Greece’s Permanent Representative to the EU, Ioannis Vrailas, who on 2 August said that it was “highly debatable” whether the Greek case could provide grounds for EU interference.
Meanwhile, the revelations of the surveillance of members of the Catalan independent movement have not led to major steps within Spain or within the frame of the European Parliament’s Pegasus inquiry. For instance, until recently, no committee mission was planned to Spain, even though the scandal already broke out in April.
The lack of a mission to Spain led to an outcry on the side of the Catalans, who accused the EU of using a “double standard” in dealing with different countries affected.
However, Sophie in ‘t Veld informed EURACTIV this week that a mission to Spain has now been planned for next year.
[Edited by Luca Bertuzzi/Nathalie Weatherald]
Source: euractiv.com
