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Spain is proving to be the most troublesome country in an ongoing investigation by EU lawmakers into spyware use across the bloc.
The Iberian kingdom is the largest country in the European Union where the use of hacking tools by governments has sparked a major institutional crisis. 65 figures were targeted in the Catalan separatist movement, With all Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and Defense Minister Margarita Robles. As the scandal escalated, the Madrid government dismissed its intelligence chief and launched an investigation.
European lawmakers joining the special investigative committee PEGA – named after the infamous Israeli-made spyware tech Pegasus – are investigating spyware use in Europe. In the past months he has visited major crisis-hit countries, including Hungary, Poland, Greece and even Israel. but they still have protect Spain tour.
Belgian Greens MP and PEGA committee member Saskia Bricmont said, “Spain is the biggest spyware scandal in Europe… However, there has been no strong reaction from the PEGA investigation committee.”
Critics have pointed the finger at the European Parliament’s two largest political groups for blocking the investigation. On the one hand, the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP) chose Spain’s former Juan Ignacio Zoido Álvarez as its coordinator on the committee. interior minister In a period when some of the alleged spyware security incidents on the Catalan opposition were underway. On the other hand, the center-left Socialist and Democrats Group (S&D) includes Spain’s governing party, the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party.
“The largest political groups are actively blocking further investigations for Spain and Catalonia,” Bricmont said.
Zoido declined to comment. S&D did not respond to questions from POLITICO at the time of publication.
Now, a committee Hearing about the Spanish crisis scheduled for Tuesday has added fuel to the fire.
Renowned spyware expert John Scott-Railton, whose work has been seminal in exposing the use of the hacking tool around the world, dismissed claims that the committee had invited speakers promoting “conspiracy theories”. These included Spanish academic José Javier Olivas and computer scientist Gregorio Martin, who, argued Scott-Railton, undermined the respected research of his own and like-minded digital rights groups.
“We are in a globally recognized spyware crisis. Amplifying the deniers distracts from much-needed solutions,” Scott-Railton told POLITICO. “As a researcher, I welcome debate and scrutiny, but it is irresponsible to give credence to misinformation.”
Member ‘Protecting Political Allies’
The PEGA committee withdrew its invitation to Olivas last week after a letter from Citizens Lab and other NGOs, as well as about a dozen researchers, including Google, warned that he and Martin were “non-credible”.
According to the letter, Olivas promotes “conspiracy theories” and false claims about researchers, spyware victims and institutions. The groups also criticized Martin, a computer scientist at the University of Valencia, for his role as an academic peer reviewer. very critical paper On the Spanish spyware scandal title “Exposing the Civilian Laboratory – An Analytical and Technical Review Refuting the Catalogue,” which seeks to debunk research into the Spanish espionage scandal but has been widely discredited by researchers in the field.
In an email to MEPs seen by Politico, Olivas has hit back against the allegations, accusing some PEGA members of “collusion with a random attempt of defamation against me”.
Liberal group Renew Europe initially proposed Olivas, while the EPP invited Martin, according to two people with knowledge of the discussions who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The committee agreed to drop Olivas in favor of Andreu van den Eynde, a lawyer who was targeted with spyware, after a meeting on Tuesday last week, according to two people. However, there was not a majority to rescind Martin’s invitation, the sources said. Martin is due to speak at a hearing on Tuesday 29 November Program Released on Monday.
The largest political groups “minimized the victims’ space at the hearing with only one targeted individual, and are giving the floor to a known conspiracy theorist,” Bricmont said.
But other members of parliament expressed concern that experts’ voices were being “censored”.
In an email seen by POLITICO, Jordi Cañas Pérez, a Spanish MEP from the centrist Renew Europe grouping, said it was “deeply worrying … that a renowned scholar was censored and vetoed.” According to a person familiar with the discussions, he echoed Olivas’ call for a full and transparent explanation for the canceled invitation, with the backing of S&D Group.
Martin could not be reached for comment. ReNew Group did not immediately respond to POLITICO’s requests for comment. The Spanish government declined to comment for this article.
A leading Catalan politician said the row over which experts have been invited to the hearing means MPs have been barred from scrutinizing Spanish politicians, including some MEPs, over their own role in the Spanish espionage scandal . Alba Verges i Bosch, acting speaker of the Catalan parliament, accused the largest political groups of “protecting”[ing] His political allies in Spain.