The European Commission proposed changes today (28 September) to a seven-year-old law requiring special export controls for so-called dual-use items that can be used for military or civil use. Under the new rules, surveillance technologies will fall under an EU export control law for the first time.
But the bill may be tripped up once it moves into negotiations with national governments and the European Parliament. A group of diplomats from nine EU countries – Austria, Finland, France, Germany, Poland, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the UK – sent the Commission a memo objecting to the new law’s restrictions on technology products that could cut into companies’ business outside the EU.
Some people will be happy about the new proposal. The bill is likely to be a hit with the European Parliament and NGOs that have argued export controls are needed after technology products made by European companies were used to damage human rights. During the Arab Spring, some governments were caught using software that they bought from European firms to spy on protestors.
EurActiv.com leaked an early draft of the export control proposal in July that included a list of nine types of technology that would be subject to special approval processes.
