PEGA draft report to be presented in EU Parliament on Tuesday

A draft report on the use of Pegasus software will be presented on Tuesday morning, the rapporteur of the EU parliament’s committee that visited Cyprus over the PEGA cases last week, Sophie in’t Veld said on Monday.

The MEP said that the core findings of their visit to Cyprus and Greece over the use of spyware to investigate certain officials will be presented.

The next steps for the report include a debate between MEPs from all political groups and the tabling of amendments, with the aim of PEGA’s findings being adopted before the end of the committee’s mandate in March 2023, although an extension is not ruled out, she said.

In the coming weeks the inquiry committee will hold hearings on the situation in Germany (November 14), the black market in software vulnerabilities (November 24), the situation in Spain (November 29), and the use of spyware in third countries and the implications on the EU’s external relations (December 5).

During their visit to Cyprus, the MEPs met with the Minister of Energy, Trade and Industry Natasa Pilides, other government officials and members of the House of Representatives who participated in relevant committees, to discuss the current legal framework. They also held talks with legal experts, NGO representatives and journalists, who submitted documents on monitoring and corruption to the EP committee delegation.

In Greece, they met with investigative journalists working to uncover cases of spyware abuse, MPs from both government and opposition parties, who participated in the Parliamentary Committee of Inquiry into the illegal surveillance of opposition party leader PASOK and MEP Nikos Androulakis (Socialists, Greece). In a meeting with State Minister Georgios Gerapetritis, MEPs also discussed high-profile surveillance cases and the wider context of media pluralism and the rule of law in Greece. During the visit, they also met with journalist Thanasis Koukakis and other prominent individuals targeted by spyware, the President of the Greek data protection authority ADAE Christos Rammos, as well as NGOs and human rights defenders.

Last week, Pega said that they left “with more questions” than they had before MEPs visited Cyprus and Greece, despite constructive exchanges with government representatives, journalists and civil society representatives.

But they said they found no “clear signs of corruption” and gave instructions on how such allegations should be investigated.

“Although we did not find clear signs of corruption or the kind of authoritarian practices we see in Poland or, according to reports, in Hungary, more effort is needed to ensure transparency,” committee chairman Jeroen Lenaers said on Friday.

The Dutch politician noted that “any allegations of abuse of the practice of monitoring must be thoroughly investigated and the necessary safeguards must be put in place.”