National governments fail to protect citizens against mass surveillance - Main contents

Two and a half years after the NSA scandal, the ALDE group urges Member States to end the unlimited and unwarranted surveillance EU citizens are being exposed to. The lack of response from Member States and the European Commission to the mass surveillance revelations by Edward Snowden, as well as the invalidation of the Safe Harbour arrangements are ample proof of it. Rather than new national laws allowing for mass surveillance, the ALDE Group calls for more safeguards and prior checks on the necessity and proportionality of these pieces of legislation and for the protection of whistle-blowers.

Sophie In' t Veld, ALDE Group first vice-president and ALDE spokesperson for data protection said: "Since the revelations of massive snooping by the NSA on EU citizens, national governments have done nothing to protect the rights of EU citizens. Rather the opposite: national snooping bills have been adopted in several member states, further reducing the rights of citizens, instead of enhancing them. It is right for the European Parliament to keep this on the agenda!"

"We urgently need an agreed definition of "national security". Without a clear definition of what national security is, authorities have near unlimited powers to restrict citizens' rights".