08/03/2001 (Agence Europe) - The spokesman for the French Foreign Ministry, quoted by AFP, declared on Wednesday that France was "astonished" by and "concerned" at the shortcomings in the protection of data held by the European Commission and has asked it to remedy the situation. "The security of the data held by the Commission is a subject of serious concern, given the sensitivity and confidentiality of the information it may have at its disposal", added Francolis Rivasseau. The same day, the rapporteur for the European Parliament's temporary Echelon committee, German Social-Democrat Gerhard Schmid explained that the data protection system used by the Commission was the same as the ones used in the defence services of several countries and that there was a priori no fear to have regarding the protection of the confidentiality of the Commission's communications (also see EUROPE of 8 March, p.12).