Northern Lights

• Italian MEP Tiziano Motti uses underhanded and unethical methods to promote EU Declaration 29.  
• 371 of 736 Members of The EU Parliament have singed Declaration 29.
• Credits. MEP List and source material provided by Europaportalen, Sweden’s premiere website on Pan European Issues. Thanks! @Wohlert.

An Example of posters plastered throughout The EU Parliament.  Credit @Telecomix

The European Parliament adopted Declaration 29 today which includes the Data Retention Directive, which extends government surveillance to search engines such as Google. Declaration 29, was sold to MEP members as a method to protect children against pedophilia yet, covered up directly referring to the Data Retention Directive directly and instead only referenced it’s Directive number of “2006/24/EC”. The lobbying methods used are a strong example of playing on the emotions of MEP’s while failing to disclose the privacy rights all citizens across Europe will lose.

Emotional Flyer posted througout EU Parliament. Credit @Telecomix

Many parliamentarians did not realize until after the fact that they had been duped into signing the Data Retention Directive buried in Delcaration 29. Cecilia Wikström Swedish MEP, wrote a letter urging her colleagues to withdraw their signature. Swedish MEP, Christian Engström of the Pirate Party later made a joint statement with Swedish MEP Ek clarifying the data retention directive violates human rights.

Assistant to MEP Motti with leaflets. Credit: Christian Engström 

We all want to protect children from Pedophile’s and that is done by finding and arresting pedophiles, not by allowing government to spy on all of its citizens. The MEP’s who singed Declaration 29 have bought into a false sense of security in exchange for further erosion or the rights of all citizens in the EU. As Benjamin Franklin said in the 18th Century “Anyone who trades liberty for security deserves neither liberty nor security”.

What can you do? It’s important to know who your MEP is and how they vote. If you find you’re MEP as a signatory here and your liberties are important to you then tell them what you think.

You can find out more about each MEP by either going to Votewatch or La Quadrature Du Net.

The full list of MEP’s that singed  Declaration 29.