If I understand correctly, the proposed act restricts the use of spyware, and apparently some actors want to keep some loopholes.
The title reads like the EU wants to allow uses of spyware that were not allowed before, but I cannot infer that from the very limited information given in this article.
Indeed. It is a clear blanket clause. Nothing changes, but at least they (EP) tried. I am increasingly starting to think that the Council is the root of most problems in the EU.
I stand corrected: I haven't followed the EFMA proposal in detail, so I thought it was already in trilogues.
As for the Council: if they really are going to open up the treaties, everyone should be up to arms against the non-democratic practices and grey areas.
There isn't really anything non-democratic about the council to be honest. Not in a manner that would be fixable by treaty
The issue is mostly one of awareness, if people cared about the Council there'd be political interest for other politicians to keep ministers more accountable. As is no one even knows what the Council is and who is on it. No national politician is going to waste political capital on council oversight
The main issue with the Council of ministers is that it's a legislative body made up of executive branch actors, I don't like that on a philosophical level. Would be much better if they were replaced by national legislature delegates. Same voting system, same competencies and powers, just 1-2 hundred members instead of 27+1
Good that you brought this argument. It is a very thorny issue; we are talking about the equality of states versus the equality of citizens.
I for one support the supranational democracy element and not the intergovernmental one. For all things related to civil rights, including privacy and other things, the good things have always come from the supranational level, whereas the intergovernmental arrangement has always watered things down (or worse). The rot traces to the Lisbon Treaty.
It is a schizophrenic system: high-level politicians (ministers) are deciding things at the EU-level and then coming back to their national constituencies saying that "Brussels did it".
And their COREPER henchman ;-)
Those invisible relics from the coal and steel union are invisible for the electorate and don't represent the member states but rather the government of the member-states, thus is a minority wiping out a majority.
All the while they do policy laundry on a EU echelon without anyone batting a eye.
I don't think its particularly reasonable to expect "emergency powers" to be anything other than nigh blanket authorization because, well, in such a situation they'll do it anyway and this is at least honest about it.
"Oh shit a journalist is leaking our military's <sensitive data> which might actually affect the war -- track them down, you have full operational discretion."
No government official is even going to consider the minutia of the law before issuing an order.
I am not sure whether this example is a good one. While you can probably do interception and the like in a moment's notice, planting an implant is a different thing. As zero-click exploits are still rare, you need a spear phishing campaign or the like, meaning that a person is already likely under surveillance.
The title reads like the EU wants to allow uses of spyware that were not allowed before, but I cannot infer that from the very limited information given in this article.