Cypriot MEP Giorgos Georgiou was elected to be one of four vice presidents in the European Parliament’s committee on inquiry on investigating allegations of use of the Pegasus spyware in the European Union.
In a press release, the AKEL MEP assesses his election as important since “the new committee will also put Cyprus under the spotlight during its inquiries, in order to determine whether procedures included in EU law were followed regarding the handling of the issue related to Pegasus.”
The commission of inquiry is expected to hand its report to the Plenary within 12 months, along with suggestions on policies regarding spyware and the protection of the EU from such practices.
As announced recently by the European Parliament, the committee of inquiry is made up of 38 members from all political groups and it will investigate “alleged breaches of EU law in the use of the surveillance software by, among others, Hungary and Poland.”
The committee will also look into “existing national laws regulating surveillance, and whether Pegasus spyware was used for political purposes against, for example, journalists, politicians and lawyers.”
According to the Parliament’s rules of procedures, the term of a committee of inquiry is twelve months and can be extended twice by three-month periods.
The committee of inquiry, as well as two new special committees on foreign interference including disinformation and on lessons drawn from the COVID-19 pandemic, were set up by the Plenary in March.
According to Georgiou’s press release, the MEP had noted during a discussion on the issue during the May Plenary that the use of such technologies “is not limited to authoritarian regimes but is also found among democratic governments” which “pursue politicians, activists, journalists, political dissidents” thus undercutting fundamental pillars of democracy.
In his statement, Georgiou also suggested that the Parliament should take action to put limits on this global surveillance industry, such as a moratorium on sales until a global legal framework is established.
Source: Cyprus News Agency