Brussels, 04/11/2013 (Agence Europe) - Reacting to various articles published in the press, a spokesperson to the European Commission said on Monday 4 November that none of the countries of the EU had asked for data protection to be included in trade negotiations with the United States.
“The European Commission has had no official information indicating that Germany wishes to include data protection and the rules on protecting companies from industrial espionage in negotiations underway with the United States on trade and investment. We have not received any information from Germany or from any other country, therefore we have not so far received any request from the member states to this effect”, said Olivier Bailly, a spokesperson to the European institution (our translation).
The Commission pointed out that the subjects referred to in the press (e.g. the fight against espionage and secret services) do not fall within EU competence and are not issues which the Commission could negotiate on behalf of the EU. “These are strictly national competences”, Bailly stressed. What does come under EU jurisdiction is data protection, which falls within teh remit of Viviane Reding and regarding which “we are carrying out several work projects in parallel with the American authorities”, he added. The third meeting of the high-level group on this issue will be held on Wednesday 6 November to make progress on these matters. “There is no question of mixing what are two separate things, the negotiations on the agreement on trade and investment and the measures which the countries of the EU would like to take to fight espionage”, the spokesperson reiterated.
Additionally, the president of the internet giant Google, Eric Schmidt, on Monday described as “scandalous” the interception by the American government of the data of hundreds of millions of search engine users, revealed by the press in recent days. Google has complained about these methods to the NSA, the American agency responsible for intercepting communications, the American President, Barack Obama, and members of Congress, Schmidt said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal. “The NSA is believed to have collected the telephone data of 320 million people, in order to identify some 300 people who presented a risk. It is quite simply a poor public policy… and possibly illegal”, said the Google boss. (LC/transl.fl)