Chat control: EU Ombudsman criticizes flying change from Europol to Thorn

The outgoing EU Ombudsman Emily O'Reilly has reprimanded Europol because the police office in The Hague allowed one of its officers to transfer to the chat control service provider Thorn without any conditions. The law enforcement officer was also allowed to continue working at Europol in the same position for another two months despite his announced departure. O'Reilly sees this as a "maladministration". The investigating authority had "not adequately considered all the risks of a conflict of interest". This had "jeopardized the integrity and impartiality" of its actions.

In autumn 2023, a lobbying thicket behind the EU Commission's controversial draft regulation on online surveillance became public under the banner of the fight against child sexual abuse. Hollywood star Ashton Kutcher played an important role in this, repeatedly campaigning for the search of private messages in Brussels and finding an open ear with Commission President Ursula von der Leyen (CDU), for example. When referring to the allegedly extremely low error rate of scanners, the Commission relied on unsubstantiated information from the US organization Thorn and its commercial offshoot Safer, which the actor co-founded.

The Europol official, who joined Thorn at the end of 2021, formerly worked at the police office on an AI pilot project for the detection of child sexual abuse material (CSAM). In his new role, he was registered with the Bundestag as a lobbyist for the US institution and even went to a Europol meeting with his former colleagues for a product presentation during the EU debate on chat control. The then MEP Patrick Breyer (Pirate Party) complained about this to the Ombudsman. The Ombudsman has now reminded Europol that EU employees must "follow the highest standards of ethical conduct". Above all, their integrity obligations continue to apply even after they have left the service.

Missing records, human error

"In assessing the possibility of an actual, potential or perceived conflict of interest, Europol must consider several factors", O'Reilly explains. "These include any overlap of duties or files, the risk of reputational damage, the quality of the employer, the representation of interests to the institution and whether the position is paid." However, there is much to suggest that the transfer was "unconditionally approved without the agency having effectively assessed the risks involved". There were not even records of the substantive assessment of the position within Europol, which had unconditionally approved the employee. The recommendation of a supervisory body to impose conditions on the employee was not considered "apparently due to human error".

Europol could have spared itself a public "outcry" if the delicate personnel matter had been handled correctly, according to the ombudswoman. She gives Europol credit for the fact that the office "had not purchased a product from Thorn until the day of its response". In addition, there is the promise to introduce additional measures from 2025 to prevent conflicts of interest, such as transfers, changes to tasks and the withdrawal of access to information for employees willing to change jobs. Breyer welcomed the result: "If a former Europol official sells his internal knowledge and contacts to lobby employees of the EU Commission who are personally known to him, this is precisely what needs to be prevented." Since the revelation of "Chatcontrol-Gate", it has been known that the corresponding EU draft, which is currently stuck, is "the product of the lobby of an international surveillance authority-industrial complex".

(vbr)