Members of the Subcommittee on Security and Defence in the European Parliament received an internal email request from the Parliament's IT department, reviewed by the German Press Agency (dpa), to check their mobile phones in anticipation of spyware.

The European Parliament said today, Wednesday, that traces found on two devices require "special attention".

The IT department said in the internal email that members of the subcommittee and its staff must urgently check their mobile phones to verify whether spyware has been installed on them.

The concerned subcommittee includes several German Members of the European Parliament, namely Özlem Demirel, Maximilian Krah, and Hannah Neumann. Demirel said, "Times of armament and war are times when liberal democracy and civil liberties are at risk."