GREECE: LAW ENFORCEMENT AND COUNTERTERRORISM

C O N F I D E N T I A L ATHENS 000117

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 2020/02/18
TAGS: PTER KTFN KCRM KHLS ECPS ECON PREL KPAO KTIA EUN GR
SUBJECT: GREECE: LAW ENFORCEMENT AND COUNTERTERRORISM
INFORMATION-SHARING AND DATA PRIVACY ISSUES WITH EUROPE

REF: STATE 8403; BERLIN 128

CLASSIFIED BY: Deborah McCarthy, Charge d'Affaires, a.i.; REASON:
1.4(B),(D)


1. (C) Summary: Greeks are concerned about the privacy of data
involved in law enforcement and counterterrorism information
sharing with the U.S., as would be expected in a country with
privacy laws that are significantly stronger than the European
norm. Nevertheless, it is possible to engage in low-visibility and
necessary cooperation with Greece, as evidenced by the Greek
government's signing of HSPD-6 and PCSC agreements in 2009, which
we required for Greece to be eligible for the Visa Waiver Program
(VWP). Parliament ratified these agreements with support from both
major parties - the then-governing center-right New Democracy party
and the now-governing center-left PASOK party - despite criticism
from smaller parties. In general, mainstream Greek parties are not
doctrinaire on these issues, though they try to be careful to
minimize domestic political risk, and they do sometimes
opportunistically align themselves with larger countries within the
EU that take hard-line positions on certain data privacy issues.
We do not believe, however, that most Greek governments or Greek
MEPs would be willing to be the decisive holdout in blocking
U.S.-EU information sharing. Following up on ref A demarche, we
will continue to work with key Greek policy makers to ensure that
they understand the benefits of law enforcement and
counterterrorism information sharing and the flaws in some of the
most common arguments against it. End Summary.




2. (SBU) We shared ref A nonpaper February 5 with the Greek
government's point of contact for counterterrorism, MFA D1
(International Organizations) Directorate Counselor Dimitris
Papandreou, who disseminated it to relevant colleagues within the
government. We shared and discussed the paper February 17 with
Ministry of Justice advisor on EU issues Iota Karatzaferi. We also
reached out to selected Greek MEPs February 8 to express our
position on the February 11 European Parliament vote on the
Terrorist Finance Tracking Program (TFTP). The response from these
contacts was positive, as is generally the case when we engage
Greek officials on these subjects.




3. (C) Nevertheless, suspicion of information sharing programs such
as these is an ingrained part of contemporary Greek political
culture, as a result of the high priority Greek governments have
put on privacy rights following the 1967-1974 junta period. This
has left Greece with some of the most restrictive privacy laws in
Europe, including a prohibition on the video recording of any
individuals in a public space for any reason other than traffic
control. These laws - though weakened in some areas by the
previous government in a package of legislative amendments passed
in June 2009 - continue to cause real problems for Greek law
enforcement. But despite the legal and political biases in favor
of an extreme view of privacy rights, Greek officials generally
take a much more nuanced view when it comes to concrete areas of
international cooperation. They tend to be open to reasonable
arguments, and at a fundamental level they are unwilling to take
any position that would put them on their own - either isolating
their party on the unpopular side of high-profile political debate
within Greece or isolating Greece in an internal EU debate.




4. (SBU) The Embassy will continue to engage key Greek officials
and opinion leaders, including MEPs with their new importance under
the Lisbon Treaty in ratifying agreements, to stress the successful
track record and the data privacy safeguards of existing
information sharing mechanisms. We noted that a U.S. team of data
privacy experts recently visited Brussels and perhaps other
European capitals to engage on these issues (ref B),and we believe
such a visit to Greece could serve a useful educational purpose for
elites in the major parties and opinion circles. Many Greeks are
instinctively suspicious of information-sharing programs, and this
is likely to remain a political fact of life for a long time, but
it does not have to be an obstacle to important U.S.-EU programs as
long as we take the time to educate key Greek decision makers well
in advance of crucial deadlines.




5. (U) Embassy Athens POC is Alan Purcell, PurcellAS@state.gov.
MCCARTHY