European Parliament launches inquiry into Pegasus spy software | Abroad

The vote on the mandate and composition of the Pegasus commission will take place next Wednesday, during the plenary session of the parliament in Strasbourg. “We need to find out which governments are using such software, for what purpose and with what results”, said Belgian MP Saskia Bricmont (Ecolo) earlier. She is expected to play a visible role in the inquiry committee.

The special committee on foreign interference in the democratic decision-making processes in the European Union, including in the field of disinformation, builds on a first committee that was set up as early as June 2020. The committee’s final report will be put to the vote next week.

That report points to a lack of awareness of the seriousness of the threat and points the finger at some former European leaders who are now active in large foreign companies or investors, such as former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder at the Russian ‘Gazprom’ and Belgian former Prime Minister Yves Leterme at the Chinese investment fund ‘ToJoy’. In the newspaper ‘De Standaard’ Leterme already responded that he does not feel “touched” by the report. “It is not the first time that the European Parliament has expressed stupidity,” he said. “ToJoy is a private company, I have not been approached by Chinese politicians.”

The new Commission on Interference and Disinformation will now have to work against the background of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the European ban on broadcasting the Russian state media ‘Russia Today’ (RT) and ‘Sputnik’ in the EU.

The committee that will examine the lessons learned from the corona crisis will examine not only the policies pursued at European level, but also international relations in the context of vaccine diplomacy, the impact of the crisis on society, fundamental rights and freedoms, and so on.