In Light of PRISM, Furious European Politicians to Fight Back Against U.S. Surveillance Overreach

[octoberlib]

Before the disclosure of PRISM, a handful of European politicians were trying to amend data protection regulations to shield against suspected sweeping secret U.S. surveillance programs. The politicians’ concerns seemed to fall on deaf ears. However, the disclosure of PRISM has provided a level of confirmation that the suspicions were not rooted in paranoia, and the importance of this cannot be overstated. It has finally jolted senior European officials into action. Viviane Reding, vice president of the European Commission, the EU’s executive body, said in a statement Friday that “a clear legal framework for the protection of personal data is not a luxury or constraint but a fundamental right," suggesting that the commission may support the introduction of more stringent privacy safeguards Europe-wide in response to PRISM.

Sophia in ‘t Veld, a Dutch member of the European Parliament, has been attempting to draw attention to the ability of U.S. powers to monitor European citizens for several years. In a phone interview Sunday, int ‘ Veld told me she was shocked about the PRISM revelations and said that she thought it would “change the context” of data privacy reforms across Europe. “We really need to wake up,” she said. “This is serious stuff. The government knowing everything, literally everything about us, and we are unable to exercise any meaningful democratic scrutiny? That is not a democracy.”

In ‘t Veld, who is also vice-chair of the European Parliament’s committee on Civil Liberties, Justice, and Home Affairs, said that part of the problem is that the European Union has been “passive” and unwilling to stand up to the U.S. government on national security issues in recent years. She said she was not comforted by the Obama administration’s claims in the aftermath of the PRISM revelations that the NSA’s spy powers are overseen by Congress. The Dutch MEP described meeting U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee chairwoman Dianne Feinstein a couple of years ago: “She did not strike me as somebody who was particularly concerned with civil liberties—quite the contrary. We were actually quite shocked by her attitude. So if democratic oversight is taking place under her lead, it doesn’t really reassure me.”

Politicians in Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Belgium, and Romania are among those to have called for an investigation into PRISM at a European level. German privacy chief Peter Schaar has demanded that the U.S. government “provide clarity” regarding what he described as “monstrous allegations of total monitoring of various telecommunications and Internet services.” And Schaar has been backed up by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who plans to raise the issue when she meets in Berlin with President Obama next week. Further afield, Canadian and Australian officials have also been voicing their concerns—with Ontario privacy chief Ann Cavoukian calling the disclosures about PRISM “breathtaking” and “staggering.”

http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2013/06/10/prism_fallout_european_legislators_furious_about_u_s_surveillance.html

[roamer65]

1. The British are going to have a rougher time in the EU now.

Their heavy duty intel cooperation with us is going to raise eyebrows in continental Europe.