BRUSSELS – The European Parliament’s Pegasus spyware recommended that Greece not let Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis have the National Intelligence Service EYP report directly to him as he ordered on taking office in July, 2019.

The panel said it was acting in the wake of a phone bugging scandal that saw EYP monitor the phones of 15,745 people in the interest of national security without naming them although there were reports they included government ministers, journalists, business leaders and others.

https://www.euractiv.com/section/law-enforcement/news/european-parliament-to-call-for-national-eu-level-changes-over-spyware/

PASOK-KINAL Movement for Change center-left leader Nikos Androulakis was among them and said there was also an attempt to install Predator spyware on his phone, which the government denied having any role in that.

Members of the panel visited Greece earlier but said they got nowhere in looking into the use of surveillance because the New Democracy government wouldn’t cooperate because it involved the national interest and was outside scrutiny.

The recommendations included that there be an investigation into the use of surveillance although that was done by a Greek Parliament committee controlled by government lawmakers who prohibited the release of any details.

The draft recommendations were presented in the Pegasus (PEGA) committee, which was established in 2022 to investigate the abuse of spyware by European Union governments, reported EURACTIV.

Proposals were directed not just at Greece but also Poland, Hungary, Spain and Cyprus over the use of surveillance and are expected to be voted up by the full committee at the end of April, the report also said.