Long term that is correct, but compared to a few years back it is. Snooping on people's phone conversations is a thing of the STASI, Securitate and NKVD era. Having everything you do monitored by the government through casual on street surveillance, and then introducing that to phones is not particularly flattering.

But that's not unique to EU, look at US post 9/11. Let's say there was a period of more freedom in the west, and its declining steadily. I've heard some US reporter predicting live in TV exactly this happening as towers were falling, I wish I remembered his name.