14 DAY TRIAL // If anyone was expecting any consequences for the United States following this entire NSA scandal, well, they’re likely wrong. The trades deal between the European Union and the US, the one that France threatened to put a stop to during the high points of the scandal, is probably going to carry on as if nothing happened.
During a conference in Warsaw, US Secretary of State John Kerry said that trade talks between the two allies shouldn’t be damaged by what the media keeps reporting about for months.
Instead, Kerry vowed the NSA surveillance activities would be reviewed and the right balance between security and privacy would be reached.
“We need to understand that we are all in this together. We are all in the effort to be able to provide protection to our citizens. And we have to strike the right balance between protecting our citizens and obviously the privacy of all our citizens. That is a balance that we do try to strike,” Kerry said.
And while reviews of the NSA have been mentioned numerous times over the past months, nothing actually happened so far and most of those who are charged with this job are either supporting the NSA’s programs or working for the Obama administration.
“This is about jobs, it’s about the economy, it is about economic competition in a global community that competes, sometimes by rules that are very questionable and shaky,” Kerry said to the media.
Whether the European Union will decide to bow down to the desires of the United States once more or stand their ground remains to be seen. Germany, one of the European Union’s leaders, is already backing out a little as the country’s politicians suggested offering Snowden asylum. In an effort not to harm relations with the United States, the country’s government seems unlikely to grant the whistleblower such protection.