EU issues a statement in support of Budapest Convention

The EU has issued a statement in support of the Council of Europe Convention on Cybercrime (Budapest Convention), highlighting it as the global standard for facilitating the fight against cybercrime. EU underlined that it did not support the UN General Assembly Resolution “Countering the use of information and communications technologies for criminal purposes” adopted on 27 December 2019, as there is no consensus that a new international treaty negotiated in the UN framework is needed. Further, the EU noted that a new treaty could lower the standards for protecting human rights and fundamental freedoms, increase the digital divide and endorse state control of the Internet.