After several trilogues, negotiations on the revision of Europol’s mandate were concluded yesterday and more powers for the EU police agency were agreed to. Despite serious concerns from civil society and a reprimand from the European Data Protection Supervisor last year, Europol is to be allowed to collect and analyse masses of data about non-suspected people, such as mobile phone movement and air travel data.

As a substitute member of Europol’s supervisory body JPSG, MEP Patrick Breyer (Pirate Party) states:

“In the trilogue negotiations, my group Greens/EFA strongly opposed the reform, which aims to legalise Europol’s illegal actions instead of stopping them. According to the findings of the European Data Protection Supervisor, Europol has been illegally storing masses of data transmitted by national intervention authorities on millions of unsuspected individuals for years. We are talking about large amounts of data (mobile phone location data, passenger lists) of people who are in no way connected to criminal activities. The consequence is that innocent citizens run the risk of being wrongly suspected of a crime because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The planned cooperation of Europol with private companies (such as Google and Microsoft), which unjustly report masses of people as part of pan-european message screening and chat control, is also unacceptable. The fact that Europol even wants to train error-prone algorithms with real citizens’ data in the future threatens to lead to false positives and discrimination.

Police cooperation in Europe is of crucial importance. For this to happen, however, Europol must be effectively monitored and prevented from violating the law. The supervisory mechanisms, which have been superficial so far, have not been given teeth to detect and stop illegal practices by the authority. As a member of the supervisory body, I still have no right to inspect Europol.“

patrick-breyer.de/en/agreement…

The Pirates in the European Parliament have submitted the nomination of Julian Assange for the Nobel Peace Prize to the Norwegian Nobel Committee. For the Pirates, the case of Assange, who is currently imprisoned in the United Kingdom, is a symbol for the oppression of freedom of speech and the public’s right to information

Julian Assange is an Australian journalist, activist, whistleblower and founder of WikiLeaks, a platform which has made millions of confidential documents available to the public since 2006. Leaks published by the non-profit organisation covered the U.S. involvement in wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Yemen, as well as the work of secret services. WikiLeaks has also released reports of corruption and crime in countries such as Turkey, Russia, China and Peru.

Pirate Party MEP Patrick Breyer comments:

“We nominate Julian Assange for his achievements and revelations, butthe detention and prosecution of Assange also set an extremelydangerous precedent for all journalists, media actors, and freedom of the press. No journalist should be prosecuted for publishing ‘state secrets’ of public interest because this is their job.”

Pirate Party MEP Markéta Gregorová comments:

“The story of Julian Assange is highly symbolic for me. It is about the fight for freedom of speech, of the press, for the protection of journalists and all those who bring information to the public. Julian Assange has exposed a number of serious practices committed by the U.S. intelligence services and the military. His prosecution under the Espionage Act of 1917 is practically a persecution. Punishing someone for publishing information in the public interest sets a dangerous precedent. Protecting journalists, their lives and their work is a fundamental democratic principle.”

In the United States, Assange faces up to 175 years in jail. The Australian has lived in various countries for security reasons, spending time at the Ecuadorian embassy in London from 2012 to 2019, where he was granted political asylum. In 2019, the U.S. asked the UK for his extradition and he has since been imprisoned in the UK’s Belmarsh prison. In December 2021, the British High Court agreed to his extradition to the U.S. on the condition that he would not be placed in a maximum security prison, as expert reports indicated that his mental health is weakened and he may attempt suicide. Assange has challenged the decision on his extradition, on which the Supreme Court will decide again.

Full text of the nomination of Julian Assange for the Nobel Peace Prize

patrick-breyer.de/en/pirates-n…