Friday

29th Mar 2024

Swedish FM to head new inquiry into NSA revelations

  • Bildt: 'Net freedom is as fundamental as freedom of information and freedom of speech in our societies' (Photo: Gunnar Seijbold/Regeringskansliet)

An new commission to be headed by Swedish foreign minister Carl Bildt is set to investigate the implications of the US snooping affair for the future of the internet.

“In most countries, increased attention is being given to all the issues of net freedom, net security and net governance. And they are, in my view, closely related to each other,” Bildt said in a statement on Wednesday (22 January).

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Get the EU news that really matters

Instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

The Global Commission on Internet Governance - launched at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Swizterland, this week - has a two-year mission to investigate state censorship of the internet and the mass surveillance and bulk processing of personal data by US and UK intelligence agencies.

The project is the brainchild of two think tanks: the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) in the US and the UK’s Royal Institute of International Affairs, better known as Chatham House.

The 25-member panel includes Marietje Schaake, a Dutch liberal MEP and a prominent digital rights campaigner.

Former intelligence officials and academics also sit on the panel.

“The commission’s work is also intended to build on a number of important strategic dialogues that are already underway and to feed into on-going policy discussions at the global level,” said a CIGI director.

The inquiry did not list the countries it intends to investigate, but notes on its website that a number of authoritarian states are waging a campaign to exert state control over critical online resources.

The US-based NGO Human Rights Watch in its annual report, out earlier this week, warned the US snooping revelations, leaked by former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden, could give a pretext for countries with poor human rights standards to clamp down ever further on internet freedoms.

Meanwhile, US President Barack Obama last week announced new measures to increase judicial oversight of data collection, but ruled out setting up legal safeguards to restrict surveillance of “foreign persons overseas.”

“The whole point of intelligence is to gather information that is not publically available,” he said.

US-led spy programmes, scuh as Prism, are said to give its National Security Agency (NSA) back-door entry into major American tech and Internet firms, in a revelation that could prompt foreign clients to leave in search of more secure services elsewhere.

The EU, for its part, says US cloud companies, such as Google and Microsoft, stand to lose billions over the next three years as non-American clients depart.

The pressure to restore trust among foreign clients has prompted Microsoft to move its servers outside the US and the easy reach of the NSA.

Microsoft’s chief lawyer Brad Smith told the Financial Times newspaper on Wednesday that people should be able to choose where their data is stored given the different models on privacy around the world.

“People should have the ability to know whether their data are being subjected to the laws and access of governments in some other country and should have the ability to make an informed choice of where their data resides,” he said, in a statement welcomed by civil liberties activists.

EU Parliament set to sue EU Commission over Hungary funds

The European Parliament will likely take the European Commission to court for unblocking more than €10bn in funds for Hungary last December. A final nod of approval is still needed by European Parliament president, Roberta Metsola.

EU Commission clears Poland's access to up to €137bn EU funds

The European Commission has legally paved the way for Poland to access up to €137bn EU funds, following Donald Tusk's government's efforts to strengthen the independence of their judiciary and restore the rule of law in the country.

Opinion

Potential legal avenues to prosecute Navalny's killers

The UN could launch an independent international investigation into Navalny's killing, akin to investigation I conducted on Jamal Khashoggi's assassination, or on Navalny's Novichok poisoning, in my role as special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, writes the secretary-general of Amnesty International.

Opinion

I'll be honest — Moldova's judicial system isn't fit for EU

To state a plain truth: at present, Moldova does not have a justice system worthy of a EU member state; it is riven with corruption and lax and inconsistent standards, despite previous attempts at reform, writes Moldova's former justice minister.

Latest News

  1. Kenyan traders react angrily to proposed EU clothes ban
  2. Lawyer suing Frontex takes aim at 'antagonistic' judges
  3. Orban's Fidesz faces low-polling jitters ahead of EU election
  4. German bank freezes account of Jewish peace group
  5. EU Modernisation Fund: an open door for fossil gas in Romania
  6. 'Swiftly dial back' interest rates, ECB told
  7. Moscow's terror attack, security and Gaza
  8. Why UK-EU defence and security deal may be difficult

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Nordic Council of MinistersJoin the Nordic Food Systems Takeover at COP28
  2. Nordic Council of MinistersHow women and men are affected differently by climate policy
  3. Nordic Council of MinistersArtist Jessie Kleemann at Nordic pavilion during UN climate summit COP28
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersCOP28: Gathering Nordic and global experts to put food and health on the agenda
  5. Friedrich Naumann FoundationPoems of Liberty – Call for Submission “Human Rights in Inhume War”: 250€ honorary fee for selected poems
  6. World BankWorld Bank report: How to create a future where the rewards of technology benefit all levels of society?

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsThis autumn Europalia arts festival is all about GEORGIA!
  2. UNOPSFostering health system resilience in fragile and conflict-affected countries
  3. European Citizen's InitiativeThe European Commission launches the ‘ImagineEU’ competition for secondary school students in the EU.
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersThe Nordic Region is stepping up its efforts to reduce food waste
  5. UNOPSUNOPS begins works under EU-funded project to repair schools in Ukraine
  6. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsGeorgia effectively prevents sanctions evasion against Russia – confirm EU, UK, USA

Join EUobserver

EU news that matters

Join us