The Diplomat
The European Parliament delegation that visited Spain this week to investigate “first hand” the alleged use of the Pegasus spying program said yesterday, without expressly accusing, that the “clues” point to Morocco as responsible for the plot. They also regretted that they had not been received by the Minister of the Presidency, Félix Bolaños, and “strongly” recommended Spain to “invite Europol to help in the forensic examination of the devices”.
Ten MEPs from the European Parliament’s committee on spying programs met in Madrid on March 20-21 with national and regional authorities, journalists and NGOs. The delegation was led by the chairman of the inquiry committee, Jeroen Lenaers (EPP, the Netherlands) and its members included Spaniards Juan Ignacio Zoido (EPP), Diana Riba i Giner (Greens/EFA), Ibán García del Blanco (S&D) and Jorge Buxadé (ECR) and the inquiry’s rapporteur, Sophie In ‘t Veld (Renew, the Netherlands). The same delegation carried out previous missions to Israel, Poland, Greece, Cyprus and Hungary.
During their visit, the MEPs met with the Secretary of State for the European Union, Pascual Navarro, and with victims of espionage, such as the President of the Generalitat of Catalonia, Pere Aragonés, the Catalan Minister for External Action, Meritxell Serret, and the Barcelona City Councilor Ernest Maragall. They also held meetings with members of the Pegasus investigation commission in the Catalan Parliament, a representative of the Ombudsman’s office, NGOs working in the field of fundamental rights and journalists.
The visit concluded with a press conference, in which Lenaers stated that the visit, “like the previous ones to Israel, Poland, Greece, Cyprus and Hungary”, has “given them food for thought now that we are preparing our recommendations on what Member States and the EU should do to ensure the protection of, among others, privacy and communications rights”. “We believe that Spain has an independent judicial system with the necessary safeguards, but we also see that new rules need to be implemented in the EU to prevent cases of abuse and to deal with this new method of spying,” he added.
As for the possible perpetrators of the spying plot, the delegation members admitted that “it is not clear who spied” on members of the government, but warned that “the clues” point to Morocco, a suspicion made even “more plausible” by the refusal of some of the people they have interviewed to delve deeper into the issue for “fear of reprisals.” The delegation also regretted that they had not been received by Felix Bolaños (they met instead with the Secretary of State for European Affairs, Pascual Navarro), but refused to accuse the government of obstructing the work of the commission in Spain.
For her part, rapporteur Sophie In ‘t Veld warned that spying programs should be “a tool for exceptional and very defined cases” and regretted, therefore, the excessive breadth of “the current definition of threats to national security” and the lack of “transparency and redress mechanisms for those spied on.”
“The fact that spying was deemed legal but no charges were brought against those spied on leaves unanswered questions,” she continued. “Moreover, if the surveillance of politicians, lawyers and civil society was legal and duly authorized, why did it lead to the resignation of the director of the National Intelligence Center (Paz Esteban) and a reform of its legal framework? We need clarity from the authorities,” she asked.
“The Ombudsman assessed the cases solely from the point of view of procedural legality, not proportionality,” and as a result, she said, “for 47 cases there is no explanation, leaving the victims helpless.” “The burden of proof unfairly falls unfairly on the people spied on, who rely on the same agencies that used the spyware against them to obtain evidence,” she warned. “We strongly recommend that the Spanish authorities invite Europol to assist in the forensic examination of the devices,” she concluded.
The European Parliament’s committee of inquiry has commissioned studies, organized hearings with experts and sent delegations to Israel, Poland, Greece, Cyprus and Hungary to investigate the use of Pegasus and similar programs. The committee’s findings, which include recommendations for future action, will be submitted to the full European Parliament for discussion and vote. The vote in committee will take place this spring.
Cembrero and others
The delegation’s visit comes just a few days after a Madrid court of first instance dismissed a lawsuit by Morocco against Ignacio Cembrero, the El Confidencial journalist who reported on Rabat’s involvement in spying on the cell phones of several Spanish leaders (among them Pedro Sánchez, the Minister of Agriculture and former ambassador to Rabat, Luis Planas, the former Minister of Foreign Affairs, the former Minister of Foreign Affairs, the former Minister of Foreign Affairs and the former ambassador to Rabat, Luis Planas); the former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Arancha González Laya; and the Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles), and even his own personal cell phone, through the Pegasus program.
Cembrero had, for the first time, the conviction of being spied on when he read two of his WhatsApp messages in an article entitled “Cembrero, the ectoplasm of the Moncloa”, signed by Hassan Alaoui, director of Maroc Diplomatique, a publication sympathetic to the Moroccan authorities. They were messages exchanged with high-ranking officials of the Spanish Government regarding the crisis with Morocco. The case has become a “hot potato” for the Spanish government, which has also done everything possible to get rid of it so as not to anger Rabat in the midst of the process of recovery of relations with its southern neighbor.
