Europe’s reaction to NSA spying ‘totally inadequate, no action, nothing more than words’

EU reaction to NSA spying inadequate

So far European governments reactions to the people’s anger about NSA spying on European Citizens has been totally inadequate, says Paul Murphy, Irish Member of the European Parliament from the Socialist Party in an interview with Russian TV station RT. He says this mainly is the result of the fact that most governments have put a lid on it, as the interests of big businesses prevails.

"What it illustrates", said Murphy,  "is the deep-rooted hypocrisy of the leaders of all countries of Europe and really around the world. Whereby they are happy to criticize other people spying on themselves, but they are all engaged in this, all of the major powers in the world are engaged in massive spying against each other. But also most importantly, states are involved in spying against their own people and other peoples around the world. I think what should come out from ordinary people across Europe is a clear message that we are opposed to the building of a security state, which is what’s happening, we are opposed to this massive surveillance of people and of elective representatives, and we demand people’s right to privacy".

"I think the response of the EU has been entirely inadequate", says Murphy, "and it’s being words and nothing more than words, while they continue, for example, with the negotiations on the EU-US free-trade agreement. I think it’s because they know the whole thing is full of hypocrisy and they know they are guilty probably as much as their technical capacities allows relative to the US. And I think it’s only through developing a movement and big pressure from below that the most important issue here – people’s, individuals’ rights of privacy, individual rights not to be spied upon, that that can prevail and can become a factor in the situation"

Basically the EU Commission and the EU parliament are sitting on their hands when it comes to properly handling the NSA spying affair on EU Citizens. It is  another example of why the confidence in the political establishment of the Europe Union has reached an all-time low.

EU-Digest