‘ProtectEU’ Strategy to Counter Hybrid Threats Targets Encrypted Communications | Balkan Insight

To look into building backdoor access into encrypted communication for law enforcement, the EU Commission is working on a roadmap, to be completed by the end of the year, that will examine what is technically possible.<br>Exterior view of the Europol headquarters in The Hague, the Netherlands, 08 June 2021. EPA-EFE/JERRY LAMPEN<br>The European Commission on Tuesday unveiled a new strategy on internal security that is designed to strengthen EU-wide policing and law enforcement powers to combat threats from terrorist and organised crime networks, especially those which cooperate with foreign powers like Russia.

The European Internal Security Strategy, dubbed “ProtectEU”, provides a comprehensive response to man-made threats to the EU’s internal security such as hybrid threats, organised crime and terrorism.

This will include an ambitious overhaul of the mandates of both Europol and border agency Frontex. Europol would be given more powers to investigate cross-border, large-scale, complex cases posing a serious threat to the bloc’s internal security, as well as giving law enforcement more access to data, including suspects’ banking transactions and possibly encrypted messaging. Frontex’s staff would be tripled to 30,000 and equipped “with advanced technology for surveillance and situational awareness”.

“We need to strengthen our capabilities… the ProtectEU strategy gives law enforcement the tools that they need to act in practice,” European Commissioner for Internal Affairs and Migration Magnus Brunner told reporters. “We will work on the right and also balance the solutions when it comes to data retention and encryption.”

The issue over encrypted communication and other such high-tech tools is a vexed one. On the one hand, Europol, backed by some in the EU Commission like Brunner, complain that the kind of encryption found on WhatsApp and Signal allow criminals, terrorists and child abusers to evade detection and ties the hands of law enforcement. Privacy campaigners, however, argue that providing law enforcement with the means to access encrypted communications would be a step toward building an EU police state.

In February 2024, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled that laws requiring crippled encryption and extensive data retention violate the European Convention on Human Rights.

To further look into the feasibility of building backdoor access into encrypted communication for law enforcement, the European Commission is currently working on a roadmap that will examine what is technically possible. This will be completed by the end of the year.

“Of course, we want to protect privacy and cybersecurity… [but] the problem is now that our law enforcement have been losing ground against the criminals… In about 85 per cent of cases investigated we should have access to more data,” Executive Vice-president of the European Commission for Technological Sovereignty, Security and Democracy Henna Virkkunen told reporters.

Asked what the EU Commission would do if, after it completes the technology roadmap, it finds there is no solution to break encryption for criminals without weakening it for everyone else, Virkkunen responded: “I am sure we will find a solution here.”

data rights<br>digital rights<br>ECHR<br>EU<br>Europol

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