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Chancellor Angela Merkel in a video conference in mid-September with EU Council President Charles Michel, China’s President Xi Jingping and EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen: EU wants to better protect connections against eavesdropping
Photo:
Sandra Steins / dpa
The coronavirus has a massive impact on processes in the European Union: Ministerial meetings and even summits of heads of state and government could only take place virtually at times.
In the meantime there are face-to-face meetings again - but numerous meetings, including those with explosive content, continue to take place virtually.
The problem: Apparently there is a lack of tap-proof technology.
The EU Council Secretariat therefore wants to set up a system that allows virtual meetings up to the second highest level of secrecy, "EU Secret", according to a confidential letter from the Foreign Office ("classified information - only for official use") that SPIEGEL has received.
"EU Secret" comprises information, the disclosure of which can cause "serious damage" to the security and interests of the EU and its member states.
In Germany this corresponds to the "secret" level.
There is now only "top secret" or "top secret".
However, the system (acquisition costs: 2.5 million euros) will only be available in 18 to 24 months.
Until then, writes the Foreign Office (AA), meetings of the EU Councils of Ministers would have to continue to take place "in open video conferences" with commercial encryption, "so as not to jeopardize the Council's ability to work under current pandemic conditions".
Who is listening in on virtual meetings?
How secure the new video conference system will really be depends on the paper not only on the technology in Brussels - but also "on the security of the connections of the dialing-in participants".
The Foreign Office apparently sees gaps here: In all 27 EU countries, investments are required in order to achieve the "EU Secret" level.
Concerns about the secrecy of video conferences are not just for technical reasons.
Diplomats complain that in the virtual rounds nobody can see who is sitting and listening to the other participants outside the camera angle.
For this reason, caution was already spoken at the virtual EU summits, says a Brussels diplomat: "It is almost certain that more people than listened than at a normal summit."
Telephone calls should, however, become more secure faster than video conferences.
Thanks to a new system, telephony security could also be raised to "EU Secret" level in the coming year, according to the AA.
In addition, leaders of the EU and the member states, senior officials and delegations are to receive mobile devices for secure telephony and SMS "in order to create a uniform system".
The Germans, of all people, want to save: They are demanding that the old technology continue to be used for the two lowest of four levels of confidentiality ("Only for official use" and "confidential") for reasons of cost.
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