Critics of Polish government “systematically surveilled with spyware”, finds EU report

A European Parliament inquiry has found “spyware abuses in several EU member states”, including “systemic issues” in Poland and Hungary.

The committee said that in Poland, Israeli-made Pegasus spyware has been used as part of “a system for the surveillance of the opposition and critics of the government – designed to keep the ruling majority and the government in power”.

Its final report, adopted this week, noted that “the scope for legal surveillance in Poland has been expanded to the near unlimited” and that “the information harvested with spyware is used in smear campaigns against government critics and opposition, through the government-controlled state media”.

“Our inquiry has made it clear that spyware has been used to violate fundamental rights and endanger democracy in several EU member states, Poland and Hungary being the most blatant cases,” said committee chair Jeroen Lenaers.

However, the committee’s rapporteur, Sophie In‘t Veld, admitted in remarks to Associated Press that they did not have definitive evidence “because none of the authorities are cooperating” with the inquiry. Lenaers said that Poland’s refusal to cooperate was “extremely concerning”.

In late 2021, Associated Press first reported that Pegasus had been used to hack the phones of figures critical of the Polish government, including a senator, a prosecutor opposed to the government’s judicial overhaul, and a lawyer who has represented senior opposition politicians.

The findings were based on research by Citizen Lab, a cybersecurity watchdog based at the University of Toronto. Soon after, Poland’s state auditor announced that it had evidence the government had bought Pegasus from Israel in 2017. The purchase was allegedly funded in an unlawful manner.

The Polish government, however, denied that it has used electronic surveillance tools for political purposes. Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki described the claims as a “spiral of fake news”.

Following a year-long investigation, the European Parliament committee this week announced that it had found spyware being used by EU member states “to intimidate political opposition, silence critical media and manipulate elections”. It warned that current EU structures are unable to effectively deal with such abuses.

While the inquiry found some issues in Greece and Spain, it noted that the main problems were in Poland and Hungary, “where the respective governments have dismantled independent oversight mechanisms”.

As well as its report on the use of spyware, the committee presented a set of recommendations to improve oversight, including the creation of an EU Tech Lab. They will be voted on by the European Parliament next month.

Daniel Tilles

Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.