© European Union 2015 - Source : EP

EU Parliament Passes Strongly Worded Statement on Mass Surveillance

Photo credit: © European Union 2015 – Source : EP

The European Parliament passed a resolution last week on mass surveillance that urged the EU Commission to ensure that all data that is transferred to the United States be subject to an “effective level of protection.”

The resolution says too little has been done to protect EU citizens’ fundamental rights. And it calls on all EU member states to “drop any criminal charges against Edward Snowden,” a former CIA employee who leaked classified information from the National Security Agency (NSA) in the United States.

The resolution refers to the findings of the SURVEILLE project, stating it “welcomes the results of the SURVEILLE research project, which offers a methodology for assessing surveillance technologies taking legal, ethical and technological considerations into account.”

The SURVEILLE research project is based at the European University Institute (EUI). The Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law was one of many institutions contributing to the findings.

Mass Surveillance EUSpeaking to EUI Life, Martin Scheinin, a Professor of International Law and Human Rights at the EUI who headed the project, said: “These findings are indeed very much supported by SURVEILLE research which concluded that electronic mass surveillance is both ineffective in protecting security and at the same time highly intrusive into privacy and other fundamental rights. SURVEILLE research finds that selective and carefully targeted surveillance, often in traditional forms, may be justified and proportionate but that mass surveillance is counterproductive.’’

Read more in the SURVEILLE policy brief.

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