EU urges canceling US deals over spying
The European Parliament says it will scrap agreements with the United States granting it access to European travel and financial data unless Washington reveals the extent of its electronic spying operations in Europe.
On Thursday, the European Parliament approved a non-binding resolution, condemning Washington™s spying on EU officials.
Members of the parliament called on the European Commission, the Council of Ministers and EU member states to take into account œall levers at their disposal” in talks with the US.
The European Parliament warned that it would put an end to its data-sharing deals with the US — the Terrorist Finance Tracking Programme (TFTP) and Passenger Name Records (PNR) — if Washington fails to meet the European demand. The deals were created in the wake of the September 11 attacks.
The resolution, however, stopped short of suspending trade talks between the EU and the US which are set to begin in Washington on July 8.
On Wednesday, French government spokeswoman Najat Vallaud-Belkacem said the US-EU negotiations should be delayed until Washington provides the European governments with answers over the spying allegations.
On June 6, The Guardian reported that a top secret US court order allows the US National Security Agency (NSA) to collect data on the millions of US citizens who are customers of the phone company Verizon.
On the same day, the Washington Post reported that the NSA had direct access to internet servers, saying their source, a career intelligence officer, was horrified about the capabilities of the systems used by the US intelligence agency.
On June 9, US surveillance whistleblower Edward Snowden admitted his role in the leaks in a 12-minute video posted by The Guardian.
The NSA scandal took even broader dimensions when Snowden revealed information about its espionage activities targeting friendly countries.
IA/MHB
Republished with permission from: Press TV
Source: http://rinf.com/alt-news/breaking-news/eu-urges-canceling-us-deals-over-spying/47869/
