A group of European Parliament representatives are seeking to delay Serbia’s entry into the European Union and send other messages to Belgrade over the government’s usage of spyware.

The 29 members of the European Parliament (MEPs) cited a report this week from the SHARE Foundation about spyware found on the phones of Serbian student activists and that targeted others as well. The foundation, along with Amnesty International and The Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto, discovered both Pegasus and NoviSpy spyware infections.

The groups didn’t assign responsibility for the Pegasus infection, but said evidence from the NoviSpy infections pointed to Serbian government authorities.

“This is not a technical glitch; it is a direct state attack on democracy,” the 29 MEPs wrote Friday. “With upcoming elections ahead, Aleksandar Vučić’s regime is using illegal digital surveillance to systematically dismantle political opposition.”

The MEPs’ demands include slowing Serbian accession into the EU until completing an investigation into Serbia’s spyware usage and making Serbia’s accession contingent on improving rule-of-law accountability.

They also said President Ursula von der Leyen should cancel a planned visit to Serbia. European leaders were already outraged by the response from Serbia to the death of former Bosnian Serb army commander and war criminal Ratko Mladic, with Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos canceling her own visit Friday over the alleged “glorification” of Mladic.

The spyware letter adds to the pressure, said Hannah Neumann, an MEP who signed it.

“It could very well be that some of these demands will be honored, but for sure the spyware won’t be the only reason why,” she told CyberScoop. Serbia’s history of spyware use contributed to Friday’s letter, she said: “We have been critical towards the government for already quite some time and demanded consequences so this was another straw.”

The Serbian government did not respond to multiple requests late Friday for comment.

“Appeasement has failed,” the members wrote. “It is time for the Commission to demonstrate that compliance with fundamental democratic standards is a non-negotiable requirement, not an option.”

European Union member nations have faced their own allegations over using spyware, and recent revelations of spyware found on the device of a member of the European Parliament’s PEGA Committee has prompted some to renew calls for enactment of recommendations from that committee to address spyware abuses.

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Researchers say they have uncovered the first confirmed Pegasus spyware infection of 2026, as well as another spyware variant infection, targeting Serbian student activists and others in what one group called the largest documented wave of that kind of surveillance in the country to date.

The SHARE Foundation said Wednesday that it found 14 people targeted in all, including one member of parliament and a local government official. The University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab confirmed the Pegasus infection of a student activist with “high probability,” while Amnesty International confirmed that two devices had been infected with a new version of the NoviSpy spyware.

The SHARE Foundation noted that the infections coincided with the build-up to key local elections in March that were viewed as a test of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party, with student protests rising in the wake of the 2024 Novi Sad railway station canopy collapse, and in advance of October parliamentary elections.

Serbian activists have found themselves targeted with spyware numerous times before, including by Pegasus and NoviSpy. But the SHARE Foundation said this was the biggest wave there so far.

Spyware is noted for its ability to access everything on a device, record screens or take over its microphone.

NoviSpy variant infections

One NoviSpy variant infection came after authorities took a student’s phone during police questioning, and the same spyware was found on another device as well after private messages from the phone were disclosed by a media outlet that favors the ruling party, SHARE Foundation said.

The SHARE Foundation said signs point to Serbian police or secret service being behind the NoviSpy variant cases, with Amnesty International offering a similar assessment. 

“These new forensic findings show that Serbian student activists continue to be targeted with invasive spyware,” Donncha Ó Cearbhaill, head of Amnesty International’s Security Lab, told CyberScoop. “As with NoviSpy, which Amnesty International found used extensively in Serbia in 2024, the evidence suggests the infections are being carried out during detention by the Serbian authorities.”

Pegasus infection

In the case of the infection from NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware, it’s rare for investigators to determine who specifically made use of it, although they found that the student’s device was hacked with a Pegasus zero-click exploit from December of last year to January of this year. The infection came via a zero-click exploit — meaning without victim interaction.

But Citizen Lab said the Serbian case harkens back to the first discovery of Pegasus a decade ago when it was against a pro-democracy activist, Ahmed Mansoor.

“Today, Pegasus is still being used to hack people campaigning for democracy,” said John Scott-Railton, senior researcher. “NSO spent a decade promising reform, yet their spyware is still an instrument of political repression.”

NSO Group maintains that its spyware is for usage against terrorism and crime, and that it halts any abuses it discovers.

The spyware discoveries in Serbia came after Apple sent threat notifications to the targets.

“Apple’s updates have broken this particular exploit, so we urge everyone to make sure they are updated to the latest version of iOS,” said Bill Marczak, senior researcher at Citizen Lab.

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