More needs to be done to protect European citizens from mass surveillance by intelligent agencies. That was the message sent from the European Parliament today when members voted in favour of a report following up on the revelations made by Edward Snowden about NSA spying on European citizens.
Birget Sippel, S&D spokesperson for civil liberties, justice and home affairs said:
"This resolution comes a year and a half after the start of the inquiry by the European Parliament into the mass surveillance of European citizens by intelligence agencies following the Snowden revelations. These made clear that surveillance was wide spread, used indiscriminately and did not contain enough judicial or political oversight. Despite this, not enough has been done by member states or the Commission to actually correct this. This resolution calls on all parties to take concrete action to help regain the trust of European citizens on data retention and surveillance by security services."
S&D MEP Claude Moraes, chair of the civil liberties, justice and home affairs committee and author of report, added:
"This resolution is even more important given the recent ruling of the European Court of Justice invalidating Safe Harbour. We welcomed this decision and feel it is essential that the EU has in place an alternative to Safe Harbour which will provide a stronger framework to protect the fundamental rights of citizens. The EU must advance in its efforts to rebuild trust in citizens on the issue of mass surveillance by clamping down on arbitrary abuses of the fundamental right to privacy. Work must also continue to develop a "European Digital Habeas Corpus" in order to ensure that civil liberties are defended on the internet as well."
