Parliament is calling for a stricter control on exports of “dual-use goods”,  in particular civilian technologies that could be used by authoritarian regimes to spy on citizens.

data protection

technology

EU politics

consumer protection

rights of the individual

terrorism

EU police cooperation

Parliament calls for stricter export controls on spyware technology

https://api.multimedia.europarl.europa.eu/documents/20125/19720484/N01-PUB-180116-DUAL-EN.srt

In 2011, Abdul Ghani al-Khanjar was sentenced to 15 years in prison in Bahrain

after participating in various protests during the Arab Spring. 

Upon arrest, he was shocked to discover all his text messages in the police files.

This hack into his private phone was made possible by monitoring technology 

sold by a European company to the government of Bahrain.

There are a lot of examples where European technology 

has been used for arresting, torturing, and even killing people 

for example in Iran, in Egypt, in Bahrain, Ethiopia, Morocco, 

MEPs are of the opinion Europe should not help dictators spy on their own people 

by providing them with devices or software 

which facilitates the hacking of computers or the intercepting of mobile phones. 

They propose to add these surveillance technologies on Europe's so-called 

"dual use goods" lists of items subject to export control rules. ##@#

We do not want to export items for violation of human rights. 

So it's all our philosophy to have a value-based politics and exports, of course.

Europe's list of "dual use" technologies also aims to control any items produced for 

civilian use that could ease the creation of weapons of mass destruction 

This ranges from nuclear reactors to some sensitive chemicals.