The delegation of MEPs from the commission that investigates espionage in the European Union with Pegasus and other similar programs has closed its agenda in Spain for Monday and Tuesday of next week without having an appointment with the President of the Government on the calendar , Pedro Sánchez, nor with any of his ministers, although some members of the central Executive had denounced being victims of espionage on their mobile phones. Thus, for now, the only representative of the central government who will meet with the members of the European Parliament mission, if there are no changes, will be the Secretary of State for European Affairs, Pascual Navarro.
With whom the representation of the European Parliament will be seen next Tuesday is with the president of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès, with the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the European Union, Metixell Serret, and with Ernest Maragall, Republican Left candidate for mayor from Barcelona. All of them spied with the software of the Israeli firm NSO Group.
The mission, in the end, will also be seen on Monday with deputies from the commission that investigates espionage in the Parliament of Catalonia, among which there are also some spied on, and on Tuesday with the Defense commission of the Congress of Deputies, the same day on which the debate on Vox’s motion of no confidence is held in the Lower House. There is also space for a meeting with Andrés Jiménez, director of the Security and Justice area of ??the Ombudsman’s office, although the option of meeting with the Ombudsman, Ángel Gabilondo, had been considered at first.
An appointment with representatives of civil society also appears on the delegation’s agenda. Specifically, there will be interviews with Virginia Álvarez, head of the human rights area at Amnesty International, and with Patricia Goicoechea, director in Spain of Rights International.
The independence movement had regretted that the visit of the European Parliament delegation, which has already been to other countries, such as Israel, Poland, Greece, Cyprus and Hungary, took place in two complicated days as it is a holiday next Monday in Madrid and coincides with on Tuesday with the first day of the motion of no confidence by the economist Ramón Tamames against Pedro Sánchez.
The delegation is made up of the Dutch Jeroen Lenaers, president of the commission of inquiry and head of the delegation (PPE), the Dutch Sophia in ‘T Veld (Liberals), the former Minister of the Interior and Popular MEP Juan Ignacio Zoido, the Austrian Social Democrat Hannes Heide, the Polish Ró?a Thun Und Hohenstein (Liberals), the Republican Diana Riba (of the Green group), the socialist Ibán García del Blanco, the leader of Vox Jorge Buxadé and the Slovakian Vladimír Bilcík (PPE). In a statement issued this Friday, the president of the commission and the rapporteur of the report have hoped to be able to meet with members of the Government.
In the preliminary report of the investigation commission of the European Parliament, a call to attention was given to the Government for the use of Pegasus against Catalan separatists. In the document, which can still be amended, the European Parliament concludes that “it is not possible to establish” the supposed threat to national security that the central executive invoked to justify spying on sovereignist leaders. The Government recognized the espionage of 18 people, although previous investigations revealed that there were more than 60 politicians, lawyers and activists who had suffered espionage.
In the first, provisional and unconfirmed agenda, meetings with Supreme Court judges such as Pablo Llarena, with the director of the CNI, Esperanza Casteleiro, and her predecessor in office, Paz Esteban, as well as members of the Government, among much others.
