European Parliament Resolution on Electronic Mass Surveillance

This document presents the European People's Party (EPP) Group's position on the landmark European Parliament resolution addressing the mass surveillance of EU citizens and the broader implications for transatlantic relations following the Snowden revelations of 2013.

The EPP Group's intervention represents a careful attempt to balance the legitimate concerns about privacy — enshrined in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights — with the security imperatives that underpin the transatlantic partnership and remain central to Europe's own defence architecture.

The paper argues that while the scale of surveillance revealed by the Snowden disclosures was troubling and warranted a strong European institutional response, the political climate should not be allowed to produce outcomes that would permanently damage intelligence-sharing arrangements critical to preventing attacks on European soil.

The EPP Group's position called for the negotiation of a comprehensive data protection agreement with the United States that would provide EU citizens with judicial redress mechanisms, while preserving the operational space for legitimate counter-terrorism intelligence activities.

The analysis situates this position within the broader debate about digital sovereignty and the appropriate limits of state surveillance — a debate that has only intensified in the years since the resolution was adopted, particularly in the context of the EU-US Privacy Shield framework and its successors.