SESSION OF WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2001

“Echelon”

Karamanou (PSE). – Mr. President, it is a fact that after the end of the Cold War and the collapse of bipolarity, many national intelligence services expanded their scope of action into the commercial and industrial sectors. In this activity, the United States, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and our own United Kingdom excelled with the creation of the Echelon system, as verified by our committee, thanks to the excellent work of the rapporteur Mr. Schmitt and the coordinators.

In my opinion, the Echelon system constitutes one of the greatest scandals of all time. A political scandal, an economic scandal, a scandal of mass violation of human rights and democratic rules. Therefore, any strategic planning to address Echelon-type espionage systems should hold governments and international organizations accountable.

The promotion of the global market must be accompanied by legal guarantees for the protection of privacy as well as the rules of fair competition. At both national and European levels, it is necessary to improve the security of information infrastructures, as well as to implement effective parliamentary and judicial oversight of the functioning of intelligence services, so that the trust of citizens in the information society is not undermined.

Finally, European businesses must develop protection mechanisms by reviewing their internal operations, informing and training their staff, and using programs to protect their electronic communications. Healthy competition among businesses should be a cornerstone of the global economy. In any case, intelligence services must operate based on respect for fundamental rights, as outlined in the Charter and Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights. It is time to finally provide an answer to the question of European citizens: who will guard us from the guardians?