Germany calls in UK ambassador to protest against spying activities

The German government has summoned Britain’s ambassador to Berlin to voice the country’s strong protest and anger over reports showing that London has been spying on the seat of German power.

A foreign ministry spokesman confirmed that the British envoy was called in to elaborate on the current reports in the British media and the fact that “tapping communication from an embassy would be a violation of international law”.

Earlier on Tuesday morning, The Independent reported that Britain has set up a “spy nest” in the German capital very much like the one which has been operating from the top floor of the US Embassy.

This comes as the German foreign office, just last week, summoned the US ambassador to explain to foreign minister Guido Westerwelle about reports revealing that Washington has been tapping the Chancellor Angela Merkel’s mobile phone for at least 10 years.

According to the paper’s revelations, the UK has employed a number of spies in its Berlin Embassy, whose true mission had been unknown to other staff.

Documents leaked by US National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden showed Britain has also been operating a covert listening post within a stone’s throw of the Bundestag, Germany’s parliament, and Merkel’s offices in the Chancellery, using hi-tech equipment housed on the embassy roof.

Jan Albrecht, an MEP for Germany’s Green Party, who is a leading campaigner on privacy and data protection, questioned the UK Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ)’s motives behind its spying activities.

“If GCHQ runs a listening post on the top of the UK’s Berlin embassy, it is clearly targeting politicians and journalists. Do these people pose a threat?” he asked.

“The EU has asked David Cameron’s government to explain the activities of GCHQ in Europe but it has declined to do so, saying it does not comment on activities in the interest of national security. This is hardly in the spirit of European co-operation. We are not enemies,” added the Green Party MEP.

The British Embassy in Berlin, opened in 2000, is on Wilhelmstrasse, just off the Unter den Linden boulevard, and only a few hundred metres from the US Embassy.