Excessive surveillance of citizens in Poland

11.9.2012

Question for written answer E-008048/2012
to the Commission
Rule 117
Marek Henryk Migalski (ECR)

According to a report by the Commission, Poles are subject to more phone tapping and surveillance than anyone else in the European Union — we head the list in the EU for the number of interceptions. The Commission report claims that the police and special services accessed as many as 1 300 000 phone bills in 2010 without any oversight either by the courts or the public prosecutor and without the knowledge of the persons concerned. According to the Panoptykon Foundation, in 2011 the police and the special services made 1 856 000 checks on the phone records of individuals (who phoned whom) as well as data concerning messages sent and Internet usage.

The police and the special services are free to access telecommunications data in relation to any case, even where criminal proceedings are not involved, without needing to ask for consent. There are as many as nine services authorised to access communications data and use other surveillance tools in Poland: the police, the Internal Security Agency, the Central Anti-Corruption Bureau, the Border Guard, the Military Gendarmerie, the Inspector-General of the Treasury, the Government Protection Bureau, the Foreign Intelligence Agency and the Military Counter-Intelligence Service.

This information, especially if compared to the situation in other EU Member States, suggests that surveillance of Polish citizens is disproportionate to needs and this may pose a threat to fundamental civil liberties under the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. Both the excessive number of bodies authorised to carry out surveillance activities and the lack of appropriate control and oversight procedures seem to pose a risk.

In light of the above, what is the Commission’s position regarding the levels of surveillance in Poland and does it intend to raise this matter with the Polish Government?

OJ C 308 E, 23/10/2013