Just before the European elections, the European Parliament dug into the controversy of mass surveillance. Short of time, the EP managed to pinpoint some of the relevant issues. But the outcome was mainly in form of sweeping resolutions, expressing concern.
Now, the EP is not allowed to propose any new regulations or reforms by it self. The Parliament can ask for change. But only the European Commission may introduce any actual proposals.
At the moment, there is no new Commision, only a president. When it comes to surveillance, we don’t yet know who will be commissioner for the “interior” (police, security and border control). The surveillance issue will also be dealt with by the new commissioners for legal affairs; industry; telecoms and possibly also by a new commissioner dealing with human rights issues.
After the European Court of Justice overthrowing the EU directive on data retention, we can assume that a new and revised directive will be put forward relatively soon.
In this process the European Council (the member states) will be the third player. And there the opinions are deeply divided. Some MS would like to scrap data retention, while others like the UK and Sweden (NSA partners) are very insistent on continuing to store data on all citizens all telecommunications.
It is hard to tell about the outcome, but one possibility is that if the Parliament, the Commission and the Council cannot agree–there will be no new directive. If so, every member state will have decide for itself. (Keeping in mind that the ECJ considers warrantless blanket mass surveillance being in breach of human rights.)
Then we have the issue of NSA global mass surveillance, member states cooperating with the NSA and various national surveillance programs. In these matters member states are very clear that they consider them to be national issues, outside EU competence.
In this they are correct. And we should be thankful that surveillance as such is not an EU issue. (Centralized EU surveillance and intelligence would be a nightmare.) However, human rights are. And on that note we should expect the EP to continue fight member states over privacy issues related to surveillance policies.
There are also internal market and competition issues related to national surveillance programs. Those will be covered in the EU Data Protection Package, now being in limbo between outgoing and incoming EU institutions.
There is a sense of urgency in the EU apparatus when it comes to issues mentioned above. In the present power vacuum the EU bureaucracy will continue to prepare these matters without sufficient democratic oversight. That is cause for concern.
On a positive note, a newly elected European Parliament is always sensitive about activism, public debate and publicity.
So, the present interruption in EU policy making might actually be a window of opportunity for privacy and civil rights activists to strengthen their case.
/ HAX
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