WRITTEN QUESTION E-3401/02 by Marco Cappato (NI) to the Council. Total Information Awareness.
Date: 2002-11-29
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: EU relations, Internet, United States, cross-frontier data flow, data processing, personal data, protection of privacy, terrorism

18.9.2003

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 222 E/65

To what extent will this expand eavesdropping capabilities over those of the US-directed ‘Echelon’

3.
system which have existed for much longer?

4. What are the implications of this for present-day privacy protection and mail service inviolability,
which has been recognised for more than a century and a half in democratic states based on the rule of
law?

5. What are the implications of this in terms of potential industrial espionage carried out from the US
on European firms?

6. What are the implications of this for the ability of other government authorities, including the EU
and its Member States, to operate independently, i.e. away from US monitoring and improper influence?

Is the Council willing to declare that the EU will not share data with the US, for the new system,
7.
which is held as a result of any obligation to store electronic communications data? Does it have ways and
means of refusing to cooperate in this way and, if so, what are they?

8.

Has the Council now objected to the US plans or does it intend to do so?

(2003/C 222 E/072)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3401/02

by Marco Cappato (NI) to the Council

(29 November 2002)

Subject: Total Information Awareness

According to some articles that have appeared in the press, the United States Government approved last
February a USD 200 million budget to develop two new offices: the Information Exploitation Office and
the Information Awareness Office. The latter is notably building a programme called Total Information
Awareness (TIA), whose aim is the collection, integration and treatment of any kind of information in
order to detect suspect individual behaviours and identify potential terrorists. Some of the planned
activities of TIA are the development of the Genoa I software for the clandestine exploration of all
electronic databases and other forms of data-mining and information collection at international level.

Given the global nature of electronic communications, the system would have immediate implications for
and be effective on communications even between EU citizens.

Can the Council ask the US Government for confirmation of this information? If this information is
confirmed, does the Council not think that the planned activities of TIA would be in breach of EU
directives on data protection, and of other relevant treaties between the EU, its Member States and the US?
What measures will the Council take in order to have EU law and European citizens’ rights and freedoms
fully respected?

Joint answer
to Written Questions E-3384/02 and E-3401/02

(8 May 2003)

The Council never comments on press statements and underlines that the work on a prototype system of
the so-called Total Information Awareness (TIA) system was available from open sources before the said
statement appeared in ‘The Washington Post’ on 12 November 2002.

The Council would refer the Honourable Member to the statement it made on this subject to the plenary
part-session of the European Parliament on 23 October 2002.

From a more general point of view the Council maintains a constant dialogue with the United States
Government, particularly within the framework of the Transatlantic Dialogue, where information is
exchanged about matters of mutual interest and concern.