Parliament to probe US spy network

Date: 29/06/2000

By John Shelley

The European Parliament is poised to set up an investigative team to look into the secret US spying network Echelon.

But some MEPs fear that the group's evidence-gathering powers will be too weak to find out the truth about the project.

The assembly is expected to endorse the creation of a temporary committee to examine the electronic surveillance system set up by the US and involving the UK - which monitors e-mail, phone and satellite communications across the world - next week.

But Green MEPs will call for a stronger 'committee of inquiry' to be created, with powers to call witnesses and examine whether EU privacy law is being breached by the network, which is believed to monitor millions of electronic messages randomly every hour.

"I believe that the time has come to shed more light on what foreign administrations and our own are getting up to in the name of national security," said group leader Heidi Hautala.

The temporary committee will have up to 18 months to produce a report, which is likely to include recommendations for improving data protection for Union citizens and firms and propose ways to develop software which would be immune from Echelon-type monitoring.

Most MEPs argue this is the most rigorous investigation they can launch because the EU has no power to consider national security matters and governments can refuse to answer questions on the subject. But Green members insist the committee should be given the more specific job of looking into how Echelon works, what it monitors and whether it breaches Union law.

Both the US and the UK denied the existence of Echelon for several years before finally owning up to eavesdropping on private and commercial communications but insist they only do so only for national security reasons and not, as has been claimed, to spy on companies.

The European Parliament is poised to set up an investigative team to look into the secret US spying network Echelon.