Dutch PM bans smartphones from Cabinet meetings over espionage concerns

Prime Minister Dick Schoof has banned smartphones and other electronic devices from official Cabinet meetings. Ministers, State Secretaries, and other civil servants have to put their devices in a separate safe. “The threat of espionage is timeless and this was a completely self-evident measure,” the Prime Minister explained the measure before the Council of Ministers on Friday, NOS reports.

Schoof, formerly the head of the intelligence service AIVD, stressed that all “electronic devices” have microphones and that countries are interested in the decision-making of the Netherlands. “You must want to prevent that, so this is a very simple measure,” he said.

Previous Cabinets sometimes had Ministers leave their phones outside meetings, but not always. Schoof didn’t want to comment on whether his predecessors took unnecessary risks. Different assessments were made at the time, and he “maybe has a bit more experience with that kind of thing,” he said.

Schoof implemented the ban immediately after his Cainbet took office. According to him, all Ministers agreed. “I have agreed that I will regularly organize a short break so that everyone can go to their phone, but even the most stubborn junkies actually like it when their phone is gone for a while,” the Prime Minister said.

Minister Judith Uitermark of Home Affairs, responsible for the AIVD, stressed that there is no indication that Ministers were wiretapped during Cabinet meetings. The Prime Minister’s phone ban is about “wanting to be on the safe side. And really wanting to ensure that when we discuss state secret information with each other, it is discussed as safely as possible,” she said ahead of the weekly Cabinet meeting, ANP reported.

Uitermark called the measure “sensible in the current times in which we know that a lot of hacking and wiretapping is taking place.” She added that it has some challenges. “You have to do everything on paper again. It takes some getting used to.”