Europe to Increase Control on Dual-Use Products Export

Europe to Increase Control on Dual-Use Products Export

dual-use technologies

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Lawmakers in the European Union have advanced plans to subject hacking tools to export controls currently reserved for depleted uranium, human pathogens and other “dual use” products and technologies with both military and civilian applications. If passed by the EU Parliament’s full House, the draft proposal would place spyware and other surveillance technologies in the same category as missiles, lasers, toxins and other items prone to being harnessed against civilians.

The European Parliament’s Trade Committee voted 34-1 in support of expanding its list of regulated dual use products to cover “cyber-surveillance technology which can be used for the commission of serious violations of human rights or international humanitarian law, or can pose a threat to international security or the essential security interests of the Union and its Member States.”

According to washingtontimes.com, the EU’s existing export controls impose restrictions on dual-use products capable of being used to make weapons of mass destruction or otherwise banned by trade embargoes. “Surveillance activities for the purposes of the prevention, investigation, detection or prosecution of criminal offenses or the execution of criminal penalties must be laid down by law and constitute a necessary and proportionate measure in a democratic society,” said an explanatory memorandum accompanying the proposal approved. “In recent years, however, there have been numerous reports of cyber-surveillance technologies being exported to repressive regimes and/or into conflict areas and misused in violation of human rights.

“Cyber-surveillance technologies, which have legitimate and regulated law enforcement applications, have thus been misused for internal repression by authoritarian or repressive governments to infiltrate computer systems of dissidents and human rights activists, at times resulting in their imprisonment or even death,” the memorandum said.

An interesting move regarding cryptography technologies was recorded when several MEPs asked the Commission to propose new legislation in five to seven years that will remove items containing cryptography from the list of so-called dual-use products that need special approval before companies can sell them outside the EU, according to the euractive.com.

“Cryptography technology does not belong in the scope of dual-use export controls. It is the task of the Commission to introduce coordinated activity of Member States in the framework of the Wassenaar Arrangement to eliminate cryptography technology from the list of controlled items,” the MEPs’ justification for the amendment reads. The Wassenaar Arrangement is a broader international agreement on export control rules.