EU against US privacy approach

12/06/2013 00:00

Just before the European Union and the United States of America started
negotiating the new trade agreement between the two continents, which
will strategically help the economic development and employment of both
sides, the European Parliament learned that the Americans are using a
surveillance project that allows them to have direct access to the
servers of some American internet companies, such as Apple, Google,
Facebook, Yahoo and Microsoft, which damages the privacy of the European
citizens who use these ervices. The European Parliament Members asked
the European Commission to make a report about the possible abuses and
possible measures that can be taken.

“I don’t know if you heard the declaration of the United States President, Barack Obama, who told the American citizens to not get concerned, because they were not accessing the private information of American citizens, but that of foreigners, which includes the European citizens. What special relation is this?”, declared Sophia Int’Veld, Dutch European Parliament Member.

“This has to do with the rule of law and democracy, which do not comply with massive surveillance of private conversations. We must give a clear answer tha we do not want this, and that we need stronger rules for protecting our private data”, declared Jan Philipp Albrech, German Parliament Member.

“The Commission is asking clear commitment from the United States to respect the basic rights of the European Union citizens for their data protection, and for allowing the judiciary a similar compensation to the one offered to United States citizens” declared Tonio Borg, European Commissioner for Health and Consumers.

“We are very clear that security is ver important, and this has violated our citizens’ trust”, declared Claude Moraes, an Parliament Member of the Social Democratic group.

“I want to make it clear, on behalf of the European Popular Parties, that it is completely unacceptable that the United States apply different rules for the personal data of their citizens and those of other countries. Our American friends must know this”, declared Manfred Weber, German Parliament Member.

The United States and European Union Justice Ministers will gather this Friday in Ireland to discuss about the surveillance of private data of non-American citizens.

Prepared by: Arta Tozaj

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