{"id":1186831,"date":"2026-09-04T23:17:21","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T23:17:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1186831\/"},"modified":"2026-09-04T23:17:21","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T23:17:21","slug":"european-parliament-members-call-for-slowdown-of-serbias-eu-entry-over-spyware-use","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1186831\/","title":{"rendered":"European parliament members call for slowdown of Serbia\u2019s EU entry over spyware use"},"content":{"rendered":"

A group of European Parliament representatives are seeking to delay Serbia\u2019s entry into the European Union and send other messages to Belgrade over the government\u2019s usage of spyware.<\/p>\n

The 29 members of the European Parliament (MEPs) cited a report<\/a> this week from the SHARE Foundation about spyware found on the phones of Serbian student activists and that targeted others as well. The foundation, along with Amnesty International and The Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto, discovered both Pegasus and NoviSpy spyware infections.<\/p>\n

The groups didn\u2019t assign responsibility for the Pegasus infection, but said evidence from the NoviSpy infections pointed to Serbian government authorities.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not a technical glitch; it is a direct state attack on democracy,\u201d the 29 MEPs wrote<\/a> Friday. \u201cWith upcoming elections ahead, Aleksandar Vu\u010di\u0107\u2019s regime is using illegal digital surveillance to systematically dismantle political opposition.\u201d<\/p>\n

The MEPs\u2019 demands include slowing Serbian accession into the EU until completing an investigation into Serbia\u2019s spyware usage and making Serbia\u2019s accession contingent on improving rule-of-law accountability.<\/p>\n

They also said President Ursula von der Leyen should cancel a planned visit to Serbia. European leaders were already outraged by the response from Serbia to the death of former Bosnian Serb army commander and war criminal Ratko Mladic, with Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos canceling her own visit<\/a> Friday over the alleged \u201cglorification\u201d of Mladic.<\/p>\n

The spyware letter adds to the pressure, said Hannah Neumann, an MEP who signed it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt could very well be that some of these demands will be honored, but for sure the spyware won\u2019t be the only reason why,\u201d she told CyberScoop. Serbia\u2019s history of spyware use contributed to Friday\u2019s letter, she said: \u201cWe have been critical towards the government for already quite some time and demanded consequences so this was another straw.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Serbian government did not respond to multiple requests late Friday for comment.<\/p>\n

\u201cAppeasement has failed,\u201d the members wrote. \u201cIt is time for the Commission to demonstrate that compliance with fundamental democratic standards is a non-negotiable requirement, not an option.\u201d<\/p>\n

European Union member nations have faced their own allegations over using spyware, and recent revelations of spyware found on the device<\/a> of a member of the European Parliament\u2019s PEGA Committee has prompted some to renew calls for enactment of recommendations from that committee to address spyware abuses.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\"Tim<\/p>\n

\t\t\tWritten by Tim Starks
\n\t\t\tTim Starks is senior reporter at CyberScoop. His previous stops include working at The Washington Post, POLITICO and Congressional Quarterly. An Evansville, Ind. native, he’s covered cybersecurity since 2003. Email Tim here: tim.starks@cyberscoop.com<\/a>.\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A group of European Parliament representatives are seeking to delay Serbia\u2019s entry into the European Union and send…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1186832,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5174],"tags":[65498,321691,2000,299,5187,1699,321692,213999,6512,6567,321693,3205],"class_list":["post-1186831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-eu","tag-amnesty-international","tag-citizen-lab","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-european","tag-european-union","tag-nso-group","tag-pegasus","tag-privacy","tag-serbia","tag-share-foundation","tag-spyware"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/117215328364916222","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1186831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1186831"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1186831\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1186832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1186831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1186831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1186831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}