They have demonstrated that the Government of Spain has used the Pegasus spying programme and that it has initiated the process of purchasing the Predator programme of the same function, although it cannot be known whether it has made the purchase. The conclusions drawn by the European Parliament’s Committee of Inquiry are those contained in the report which it made available to the European Parliament on Tuesday. It is up to him to analyze it now. In addition to the Spanish State, there have been cases of spying in more countries and the entire European Union system has been accused of being a sponsor of illegal action by promoting, among other things, the trade in these programmes.

Hungary, Poland, Greece, Cyprus and Spain have used “mercenary programmes”, according to the report. However, the lack of transparency in this market has not led to more EU Member States using it.

In the case of the Spanish State, the report has focused on the surveillance of Catalan independence politicians and entrepreneurs. The media El Salto received the Pegasus program that Spain obtained in 2015 from the Israeli Group NSO, but in 2017, after the Catalan referendum, was the most used. In April 2022, the independent research group Citizen Lab published that they spied on 65 politicians and entrepreneurs; 63 through the Pegasus program and two with the Candire program, among them the president of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès. In May, Paz Esteban, then head of the National Intelligence Center, acknowledged that the administration had authorized 18 cases of spying. That is the only information that has so far come from the institutions of the Spanish State.

In addition, according to the study, the Government of Spain initiated the purchase of the Predator espionage programme, although it has not been able to demonstrate whether it has finally succeeded. A leak it had in August shows that the Intellexa Alliance platform, owner of Predator, provided information to the Government of Spain on the programme services.