14 DAY TRIAL // The leaks published about the NSA spying on France and Germany couldn’t have come at a better time as the European Union members met up for a two-day summit in Brussels.
Francois Hollande and Angela Merkel have already expressed their anger over the alleged spying of the NSA. Now, with yet another report indicating that the NSA had actually been spying on at least 35 world leaders, it seems like whatever excuses the US gave have just crumpled.
Merkel has said that spying between friends “is just not done,” something that she’d said on several accounts.
The European Union summit focused on this issue on its first day.
“Facts are facts. We cannot accept this systematic spying, whatever it may be. We need to take measures and I can’t imagine measures at the national level. We need to take European measures,” said Elio di Rupo, Belgian prime minister, Der Spiegel reports.
While Belgium hasn’t been mentioned as the prime target for NSA surveillance thus far, it is the home of SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication), an international network that enables financial institutions to send and receive information about financial transactions in a secure medium. According to a previous report, it was revealed the NSA had hacked into the network.
Over the past week, the European Parliament has voted to suspend the US access to the financial database. The decision needs to go through several votes, including the European Commission’s and the EU governments before it goes into force.
“Our capacity to search for this kind of information is to hinder terrorism, criminal activities, the risk of war. That should be clear,” said the Swedish PM, practically reciting the allowed use of intelligence.
Over the past week, it has been revealed that the NSA has targeted the French business people and politicians and that it might have been spying on Angela Merkel, as well as 35 world leaders, which may or may not include the German Chancellor.