EU parliament votes against data sharing with US

The European Parliament has voted to suspend certain data-sharing agreements with the United States in light of the recent espionage by Washington, Press TV reports.

Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) made the decision based on a report presented to the parliament by the Electronic Mass Surveillance of EU Citizens Inquiry.

MEPs also voted in favor of the recommendations in the report, including a total end to data sharing deals between the EU and US unless the National Security Agency (NSA) stops its blanket surveillance of EU citizens.

“They have no business monitoring millions of innocent citizens like a giant peeping Tom. They entered the most intimate part of our private life,” said Dutch MEP Sophie in ‘t Veld.

The European Parliament’s Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs Committee set up the Electronic Mass Surveillance of EU Citizens Inquiry after leaked CIA documents indicated that the US had been tapping into the database of EU citizens.

The team has been probing the revelations for the past six months and it has just presented its final report to the European Parliament.

The European Commission, however, is refusing to suspend data sharing with the US and instead is looking for assurances from Washington. Most MEPs believe that is not good enough.

“If we are simply looking at a nice diplomatic cozy chat with the Unites States as a result of this, it really makes you wonder what has to happen before we actually take some definitive action,” said British Green MEP Jean Lambert.

MEPs have also voted in favor of new data protection regulations that would give EU citizens the right to have their personal information totally erased and see large fines imposed on those flouting the laws but getting every member state to agree on this may yet prove impossible.

Some members of the parliament in Brussels believe that robust data protection regulations will never be put in place because of corporate greed, vested interests and a fear of upsetting the US.

In October 2013, former NSA contractor Edward Snowden leaked top secret US government spying programs under which the NSA and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) are eavesdropping on millions of American and European phone records and the Internet data from major Internet companies such as Facebook, Yahoo, Google, Apple and Microsoft.

The NSA scandal took even broader dimensions when Snowden revealed information about its espionage activities targeting friendly countries and their leaders, which included bugging German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s cellphone for a decade.