Brussels, 02/03/2001 (Agence Europe) - The co-president of the Green/EFA Group of the European Parliament, Paul Lannoye, has written to Nicole Fontaine saying that, following the remarks of Desmond Perkins, official responsible for the encryption system at the European Commission, and following the exchange of letters between Chris Patten and the rapporteur of the EP's temporary Echelon committee, Gerhard Schmid (see yesterday's EUROPE, p.10), "this topic has now exceeded its political scope in the framework of the temporary Echelon committee" and "deserves being dealt with in plenary session". Mr. Lannoye is therefore calling for a Commission statement to be included on the agenda of the next session (12 to 13 March in Strasbourg) on the "possible access of the National Security Agency (of the United States) to the Commission's information encryption system".