FITUG e.V.
Förderverein Informationstechnik und Gesellschaft
FITUG e.V.Förderverein Informationstechnik und Gesellschaft |
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http://europa.eu.int/rapid/start/cgi/guesten.ksh?p_action.gettxt=gt&doc=SPEECH/00/107|0|RAPID&lg=EN
Speech by M. Erkki LIIKANEN European Commissioner responsible for Entreprise and Information Society Commission statement on Echelon European Parliament Brussels, 30 March 2000
DN: SPEECH/00/107 Date: 2000-03-30
TXT: EN PDF: EN Word Processed: EN
SPEECH/00/107
Speech by M. Erkki LIIKANEN
European Commissioner responsible for Entreprise and Information Society
Commission statement on Echelon
European Parliament
Brussels, 30 March 2000
Commission statement in the European Parliament on 30 March 2000 under agenda point "Déclarations du Conseil et de la Commission système 'Echelon', sur l'existence du système d'intelligence artificielle permettant aux Etats-Unis d'Amérique d'intercepter et de surveiller toutes les communications téléphoniques et électroniques de l'Union européenne"
The Commission has taken note of the recent debate with concern.
We received a letter by Madame Fontaine to Mr. Prodi last night, asking the Commission to concentrate its statement on certain questions. I try to cover most of them.
The respect of Human Rights and the Rule of Law constitute the foundations of the European Union. The European Convention on Human Rights recognises the right to privacy as one of those rights. All member states of the European Union are signatories of the Convention.
The specific competencies attributed to the Community are defined in the Treaty. The Commission can only act within the limits of the powers conferred on it by the Treaty.
The Community has a clear competence in the field of data protection and in research and technological development. The Union has competencies under the so-called third pillar framework with regard to law enforcement and fight against crime. National security questions belong to the exclusive competence of the Member States.
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The Lisbon Summit last week set out ambitious targets to turn Europe into the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world. Exploiting the full potential of information technology and Internet are key elements in achieving this goal.
Electronic communications play an increasingly important role in everyday life of European citizens. Well functioning electronic communications infrastructure has become crucial for our economies.
A pre-condition for achieving the Lisbon targets is that citizens and enterprises can trust in electronic communications.
A key tool to secure the confidentiality of electronic communications is encryption, or cryptography. Encryption means the transformation of data into a form unreadable by anyone without a decryption key. When the European Parliament considered the issue of interception of telecommunications in 1998, its resolution underlined the importance of encryption.
The European research efforts and relatively open access to markets have created conditions that have enabled European enterprises to develop a world-class expertise and high-quality encryption products.
It is worth noting that the United States government has recently taken steps to relax its export controls regime for encryption products.
The current rules for intra-community trade are laid down in the so- called dual-use regulation. For external trade, the Wassenaar arrangement imposes export controls on strong encryption products. The aim of export controls is to try to avoid undesired proliferation of these products to certain countries and to criminal organisations. The Commission recognises the need to balance availability of encryption products with concerns of public security and fight against crime.
The Lisbon European Council called on the Council and the Parliament to adopt - as rapidly as possible - the dual-use export control regime. The Commission hopes that the revision of dual-use regulation can be completed during the Portuguese presidency.
Moreover, the budget for research for security and confidence enhancing technologies has been increased under the 5th Framework Programme.
The Commission considers that enhancing the security of communications over Internet by using encryption is a priority. The introduction of such products is not