Brussels, 06/03/2001 (Agence Europe) - Ludowijk Briet, Director in the European Commission's DG for external relations, explained himself in public before the European Parliament's temporary Echelon Committee on the Desmond Perkins affair (see EUROPE of 2 March).. He assumed responsibility for the statements Mr. Perkins had made before this same Committee. He qualified as "absurd press allegations that claim that the Commission approves access to its encryption services". While rejecting the existence of a link between the European Commission and the American National Security Agency (NSA), he recognised that the United States could intercept messages sent by Europeans, but without being able to decipher them. He admitted that the NSA "regularly checked" the codes used by the European Commission's encryption systems, but said that it was a question of "passive" operations, independent of the will of the Europeans. Mr. Briet denied information provided by the Commission's spokesman Jonathan Faull, according to which Siemens is said to have used as sales argument a prior-test by the NSA of the encryption system earmarked for the Europeans. MEPs declared themselves "not all that convinced" by these explanations. Germany's Gerhard Schmid, rapporteur for the Echelon committee, highlighted "the differences between Mr. Perkins' information and the denials of the European Commission". He threatened to "ask for the setting up of a committee of enquiry against the European executive."