The two European countries call for the stop of such practices

Jul 1, 2013 12:23 GMT  ·  By

France and Germany are demanding that the US answer questions regarding the leaked reports of NSA spying on the European Union.

This past weekend, data emerged showing that the NSA had been spying on EU diplomats, but also on the citizens of Germany and France.

Now, French president Francois Hollande calls for an end of such practices, while Germany states that “Cold War-style behavior” was unacceptable, RT reports.

The US ambassador in Germany has already been summoned by the government to Berlin to explain the recent reports.

“If it is confirmed that diplomatic representations of the European Union and individual European countries have been spied upon, we will clearly say that bugging friends is unacceptable,’ said Angela Merkel’s spokesperson.

According to the reports, the bulk of the surveillance was targeting Germany, with a spike of 60 million data connections stored in one single day, while only about 2 million were collected from France.

Regardless, the French foreign minister called for an explanation as soon as possible.

News about the NSA spying programs came over three weeks ago and it had been clear from the start that the official purpose of these projects was the surveillance of non-US citizens.

While the EU officials have written a demand for answers regarding these reports when news broke out, only the fact that EU diplomats have been spied upon has triggered such a vehement reaction.

Edward Snowden, the man behind the NSA documents leak has been on the run for the better part of the past month, hiding out in Hong Kong for the first week. Last week he landed on a Russian airport where he’s been ever since.

He has petitioned the Ecuadorian government for political asylum, but the country’s officials claim that Snowden must either be in the country or in one of the embassies in order for them to consider his request.