18
November
2015

Surveillance by intelligence services: fundamental rights safeguards and remedies in the EU - Summary

In April 2014, the European Parliament requested the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) “to undertake in–depth research on the protection of fundamental rights in the context
of surveillance”. This summary presents FRA’s main research findings, which are published in full in the report entitled Surveillance by intelligence services: fundamental rights safeguards and remedies in the EU – Mapping Member States’ legal frameworks.

The research mapped the 28 EU Member States’ legal frameworks related to surveillance and provided an overview of existing fundamental rights standards. It focused on oversight mechanisms and on remedies available to individuals alleging infringements of their right to privacy.

The FRA legal research does not examine surveillance techniques as such. It reviews how current legal frameworks enable the use of such techniques, and explores the crucial role specialised bodies play in overseeing the work of intelligence services. In addition, it scrutinises to what extent the relevant safeguards protect privacy and data protection across the 28 EU Member States.