[7341] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
[FYI] European Parliament will vote in july on inquiry committee on Echelon
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Axel H Horns)
Mon Jun 19 09:12:03 2000
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From: "Axel H Horns" <horns@ipjur.com>
To: cryptography@c2.net
Date: Mon, 19 Jun 2000 09:35:49 +0200
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http://www.heise.de/tp/english/special/ech/6852/1.html
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European Parliament will vote in july on inquiry committee on Echelon
Jelle van Buuren 15.06.2000
Internal wrangling about procedural mistakes and rumours about
British attempts to block inquiry.
After a week of internal wrangling in the European Parliament,
parliament's president Nicole Fontaine assured that the decision on
an inquiry committee on the Echelon spying system will be taken by
the plenary session of the European Parliament. The decision will
however not be taken this week, as the Greens demanded, but in july.
The Greens accused last week the big political parties of the
European Parliament of obstructing the inquiry. The major political
parties first rejected the wish to install an inquiry committee and
favoured a weaker temporary committee. Then, they asked the
parliaments legal service opinion on the mandate for such a
committee. The legal service declared last week a temporary committee
cannot lead an inquiry. The Conference of Presidents (which unites
the leaders of the political groups in Parliament) was unable to
decide last week on how to proceed the investigation.
The Greens accused the major political parties of obstruction and
asked for a plenary vote this week on the issue. The leader of the
Socialist Group, Enrique Baron Crespo, sought to dismiss the Greens
proposal on procedural grounds, arguing that at this late stage it
could not be added to the parliaments agenda. The rumour is British
officials were pressuring Nicole Fountaine and the big political
parties to block any probe into the operation of Echelon. But now
Fontaine has made it clear the parliaments plenary will vote on the
issue in july. The Greens will repeat their demand for a fully-
fledged inquiry committee on Echelon. Paul Lannoye, president of the
Green Group said:
'The decision of the Parliament's Presidency sets an important
precedence. By having a vote in plenary, the wishes of 180
signatories of all political groups to have an inquiry committee is
treated with democratic respect.'
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