Tag: PRISM

The editor of the UK’s Guardian newspaper urged Members of the European Parliament last week to do more to shield the media, claiming UK government pressure over revelations in the Snowden affair would have a chilling effect on journalism.

The French Ministry for Foreign Affairs has told EurActiv that its diplomatic network system is protected and secure, and could not have been a target for the NSA. Human rights organisations have however filed complaints against Apple, Google and Facebook.

The European Commission will redouble efforts to promote EU-based cloud services this autumn - including the urgent drafting of a new charter - amid mounting evidence that the US Prism spying scandal may damage the global market share of US-based tech companies involved in the cloud computing sector.

The European Commission has declined to comment on whether pressure exerted by UK authorities on the Guardian newspaper to destroy sensitive documents leaked by whistleblower Edward Snowden constituted an attack on media freedom.

The European Union needs to strengthen itself internally if it is to become a global power, two former EU commissioners and an ex-president of the European Parliament told a conference in Warsaw. EurActiv Poland reports.

Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaitė said trade negotiations between the European Union and the United States would start with contacts between "professional specialists” who would look into reports that a US spy agency monitored phone calls and e-mails of EU institutions and some member states.

The European Parliament on Thursday (4 July) plans to establish a special committee to investigate reports that an American spy agency monitored phone calls and e-mails of EU institutions and some member states. But some MEPs sought to downplay pressure to freeze EU-US trade negotiations over the spying allegations. EurActiv reports from Strasbourg.

European Commission requests for clarification from the American and British governments relating to espionage allegations remain unanswered as more revelations continue to stoke European political indignation.

Some EU policymakers said talks for a free trade agreement between Washington and the EU should be put on ice until further clarification from the United States over revelations that American spies wiretapped European Union buildings in Brussels and Washington.

EU lawmakers want to forbid the United States from accessing European citizens' data without the approval of a judge or equivalent authority, a response to the revelations about the Prism spy programme.