PASOK lawmakers in the European Parliament are urging the European Commission to investigate whether European officials may have been illegally surveilled through their contacts with Greek counterparts, escalating the political fallout from Greece’s long-running wiretapping scandal into a broader European issue.
The four MEPs — Giannis Maniatis, Sakis Arnaoutoglou, Nikos Papandreou and Nicolas Farantouris — submitted a formal question to the Commission warning that the surveillance case could have implications far beyond Greece’s borders.
“The wiretapping scandal is not only a Greek matter,” the lawmakers said in a joint statement. “The possible illegal monitoring of European officials through their communications with Greek counterparts raises serious questions about European security, mutual trust and the protection of personal data.”
The intervention revives scrutiny over allegations that Greek politicians, ministers, military officials and journalists were targeted by the Predator spyware system, a commercial surveillance tool that has triggered investigations across Europe.
The PASOK MEPs argue that if senior Greek officials were under surveillance, conversations with their European counterparts — including discussions held within EU institutions and intergovernmental meetings — may also have been compromised.
They are asking the Commission whether it intends to investigate whether European officials became indirect targets because of their communications with monitored Greek officials, and whether Brussels plans to seek further information from the Greek authorities as part of a broader effort to fully clarify the affair.
The case became a major political controversy in Greece after revelations that opposition politicians, journalists and other figures had been monitored, prompting investigations by both the Greek parliament and the European Parliament. The scandal intensified pressure on the government of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, whose administration has denied wrongdoing while acknowledging failures in oversight of the intelligence services.
