The EU executive is threatening to freeze crucial data-sharing arrangements with the US because of the Edward Snowden revelations about the mass surveillance of the National Security Agency.
The US will have to adjust their surveillance activities to comply with EU law and enable legal redress in the US courts for Europeans whose rights may have been infringed, said Viviane Reding, the EU's justice and rights commissioner who is negotiating with the US on the fallout from the NSA scandal.
European businesses need to compete on a level playing field with US rivals, Reding told the Guardian.
The EU commissioner said there was little she or Brussels could do about the activities of the NSA's main partner in mass surveillance, Britain's Government Communications Headquarters or GCHQ, since secret services in the EU were the strict remit of national governments.
The commission has demanded but failed to obtain detailed information from the British government on how UK surveillance practices are affecting other EU citizens.
"I have direct competence in law enforcement but not in secret services. That remains with the member states. In general, secret services are national," said the commissioner, from Luxembourg.
As a result of the Snowden disclosures, the EU has reviewed existing data-sharing agreements with the Americans concerning commercial swaps between US and European companies, information traded aimed at suppressing international terrorist funding, and the supply of information on transatlantic air passengers.
It is also rethinking ongoing negotiations over exchanging data with the Americans on judicial and police co-operation. And it is drafting new Europe-wide data protection rules requiring US internet companies operating in the EU to obtain permission to transfer data to the US and to restrict US intelligence access to it.
Read more: NSA surveillance: Europe threatens to freeze US data-sharing arrangements | World news | The Guardian
The US will have to adjust their surveillance activities to comply with EU law and enable legal redress in the US courts for Europeans whose rights may have been infringed, said Viviane Reding, the EU's justice and rights commissioner who is negotiating with the US on the fallout from the NSA scandal.
European businesses need to compete on a level playing field with US rivals, Reding told the Guardian.
The EU commissioner said there was little she or Brussels could do about the activities of the NSA's main partner in mass surveillance, Britain's Government Communications Headquarters or GCHQ, since secret services in the EU were the strict remit of national governments.
The commission has demanded but failed to obtain detailed information from the British government on how UK surveillance practices are affecting other EU citizens.
"I have direct competence in law enforcement but not in secret services. That remains with the member states. In general, secret services are national," said the commissioner, from Luxembourg.
As a result of the Snowden disclosures, the EU has reviewed existing data-sharing agreements with the Americans concerning commercial swaps between US and European companies, information traded aimed at suppressing international terrorist funding, and the supply of information on transatlantic air passengers.
It is also rethinking ongoing negotiations over exchanging data with the Americans on judicial and police co-operation. And it is drafting new Europe-wide data protection rules requiring US internet companies operating in the EU to obtain permission to transfer data to the US and to restrict US intelligence access to it.
Read more: NSA surveillance: Europe threatens to freeze US data-sharing arrangements | World news | The Guardian
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