Europol and Trojan programmes

Question for written answer  E-000336/2021
to the Commission
Rule 138
Cornelia Ernst (The Left)

In October 2018 the Commission sent Working Paper WK 12742/2018 INIT to the Council in which it suggested that Europol develop a Trojan and make it available for deployment as a service to authorities in the Member States. The aim is to counter the ‘misuse of encryption by criminals and terrorist suspects’. Europol would run a pilot project for a Trojan which would then become a permanent fixture.

• 1.In what research or pilot projects are Europol and/or Europol’s innovation lab working with technology to help law enforcement authorities obtain remote access to external computer systems or telephones, and who else is involved in this?
• 2.What feasibility studies and market analyses on this matter have been commissioned by Europol or the Commission, and by whom were they conducted?
• 3.What software and hardware, and from which manufacturers, has Europol acquired to enable remote access to external computer systems or telephones, and were bids for these invited publicly on the usual portals?