Germany Demands End To US “Cold War” Spying Activities
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The German government on Monday said large-scale U.S. spying on the European Union, if confirmed, is unacceptable and urged Washington to restore trust in the wake of the damaging allegations.
Speaking at a press conference, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman Steffen Steibert said the government had learnt with “astonishment, better said with great displeasure” the extent of U.S. spying activities on the European Union after an exposé by German news weekly Der Spiegel.
The German government on Monday said large-scale U.S. spying on the European Union, if confirmed, is unacceptable and urged Washington to restore trust in the wake of the damaging allegations.
Speaking at a press conference, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman Steffen Steibert said the government had learnt with “astonishment, better said with great displeasure” the extent of U.S. spying activities on the European Union after an exposé by German news weekly Der Spiegel.
In its report, Der Spiegel cites a 2010 document leaked by fugitive ex-CIA analyst Edward Snowden alleging that the U.S. spied on EU internal computer networks in its New York and Washington offices and collected vast quantities of data from Germany citizens.
In addition, the Guardian has reported that U.S. intelligence service National Security Agency spied on other European countries including France, Greece and Italy.
It is not known what information U.S. spies might have got, but details of European positions on trade and military matters would have been useful to those involved in negotiations between Washington and European governments.
“If it is confirmed that diplomatic representations of the European Union and individual European countries have been spied upon, we will clearly say that bugging friends is unacceptable,” said Seibert. “We are no longer in the Cold War.”
While Germany supports the establishment of a transatlantic free trade agreement with the United States, Seibert warned that “mutual trust is necessary in order to come to an agreement.”
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In addition, Germany’s Foreign Ministry is performing a check on the security of its communications with embassies abroad while the Interior Ministry in Berlin is undertaking an examination of the safety of communication channels used by the German government.
The U.S. government has so far made no public comment on the alleged spying but EU officials are demanding “more precise information” from their U.S. counterparts.
“On behalf of the European Parliament, I demand full clarification and require further information speedily from the U.S. authorities with regard to these allegations,’ said President of the European Parliament Martin Schulz on Saturday.
French President Francois Hollande on Monday demanded that the U.S. explain its practices and threatened to block free-trade negotiations unless it received guarantees that spying would stop immediately.
“We cannot accept this kind of behavior from partners and allies … We can only have negotiations, transactions, in all areas, once we have obtained these guarantees for France, but that goes for the whole European Union and I would say for all partners of the United States,” he said.
Talks over the EU-US trade pact, the biggest bilateral deal ever negotiated, are due to start in Washington on 8 July.
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