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The third-largest group in the European Parliament, Renew Europe, has requested that a new committee investigate potential abuses of EU governments using Pegasus spyware.
The appeal came after reports indicated that the software was used to hack cellphones belonging to Hungarian and Polish journalists, lawyers and government critics.
"We need a full inquiry into the Pegasus spyware scandal. European democracy is being undermined, and the EU should act accordingly," said Sophie in 't Veld, a Dutch member of the European Parliament who helped initiate the calls for the inquiry. "We cannot let this pass; our democracy is at stake."
In 't Veld further stated that the European Commission should "quickly blacklist Pegasus' parent company NSO," as the U.S. government has done.
In November, the White House put export limits on Israel-based NSO Group. The Biden administration has said that the company's products have been used to "conduct transnational repression."
Last week, Poland's ruling party leader and the country's most powerful politician, Jarosław Kaczyński, acknowledged that the country had the spyware but denied that it was used against the political opposition, saying there was no need for an investigation. Because of its majority, Kaczyński's Law and Justice party can block any investigation.
However, the Polish opposition has moved to create a special committee in the country's Senate, where it holds a slim majority.
Pegasus is a powerful surveillance tool sold exclusively to government agencies and intended to fight terrorism and other serious crime. But investigations have been turning up case after case of politicians using it to target domestic critics and rivals.
A Global Media Consortium investigation published in July found that Pegasus software was used in Hungary to infiltrate the digital devices of at least 10 lawyers, one opposition politician and several journalists critical of the government.
In late December, the Associated Press reported that three Polish critics of the government were also hacked, based on investigations by the Citizen Lab, a research institute at the University of Toronto.
Among the Polish hacking victims were a lawyer, a prosecutor and a senator who was hacked multiple times in 2019 when he was running the opposition's parliamentary election campaign.
The hacking revelations have rocked Poland, drawing comparisons to the 1970s Watergate scandal in the United States and eliciting calls for an investigative commission in Parliament.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
