Brussels, 21/10/2013 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 21 October in Luxembourg, the French minister for foreign affairs, Laurent Fabius, announced that the US ambassador had been summoned to report “immediately” to the French foreign office at the Quai d'Orsay to explain the new revelations reported in the newspaper, Le Monde, about the activities of the NSA. It is possible that the latter has intercepted thousands of communications from French citizens. Fabius said that, “this kind of practice between partners is a violation of one's private life and is totally unacceptable. We need immediate assurances that these are no longer being practised”.
According to the newspaper, whose report is based on documents provided by the whistleblower, Edward Snowden, regarding the period from 10 December 2012 to 8 January 2013, 70.3 million recordings of telephonic data from French citizens were made by the NSA. The US security agency's targets involved people suspected of having links with terrorist activities, as well as individuals who were simply targeted because of their involvement in politics, business or in the French government. The NSA particularly focused on 'wanadoo.fr' and 'alcatel.lucent.com' e-mail addresses.
The question of transferring European data to the US via the major Internet companies was tackled on Monday evening in Strasbourg. MEPs are expected to adopt a temporary position on reform of European data protection rules soon (see EUROPE 10945). The European summit on 24-25 October will underline the importance of finalising reform before the European elections of May 2014. (SP/transl.fl)