European
and US justice officials have agreed to work towards "restoring
trust" after the NSA scandal. The EU's Viviane Reding told DW she saw
signs of an "absolutely new" attitude to Europeans' privacy.
Viviane Reding, the European Commission's vice president and justice commissioner, welcomed talks in Washington with US Attorney General Eric Holder on the allegations of widespread spying in Europe by the National Security Agency (NSA).
Viviane Reding, the European Commission's vice president and justice commissioner, welcomed talks in Washington with US Attorney General Eric Holder on the allegations of widespread spying in Europe by the National Security Agency (NSA).
In an interview with Deutsche Welle after the meeting late on Monday, Reding
concluded that "what the Americans said today suggests they are willing to
work to restore confidence."
The US
Departments of Justice and Homeland Security said in a joint statement that
"it is of the utmost importance to address these issues by restoring trust
and reinforcing our cooperation on justice and home affairs issues."
The meeting
took place hours after German Chancellor Angela Merkel told the Bundestag that
Transatlantic relations, including early negotiations on an EU-US free trade
deal, were being "put to the test" by the information leaked by
whistleblower Edward Snowden. Documents Snowden released in October suggested
that Merkel's own phone might have been tapped.
'Completely
new' approach considered?
Reding told
DW she believed there was a chance for reforms on how people's data and privacy
were protected, pointing to previous statements from Holder and US President
Barack Obama.
"What
is new in these reforms is that they are not just about Amercian citizens, but
also about how European citizens should be treated. And that is absolutely
new," Reding said. "Previously in such matters, only American
citizens were considered." She stressed, however, that policies pertaining
to intelligence agencies would be an issue for individual nation states to
discuss.
The meeting
between Reding and Holder was part of talks about private data protection
scheduled to continue into early 2014. The joint statement issued by Brussels
and Washington specifically named "judicial redress" for Europeans as
an issue under discussion. The EU has long sought improved legal rights for its
citizens either arriving at US airports or customs, or wishing to lodge
complaints in the US from afar.
"If a
German or an Austrian gets on a plane in Munich to go to Washington, and his
passenger data is interpreted wrongly or he is mistaken for someone else by the
Americans, he can encounter huge problems when he steps off the plane in the
US, but he has no chance to defend himself before US courts," Reding said.
"An American in the same case in Europe is able to enforce his rights in
European courts."
The EU was
seeking such rights for its citizens before Edward Snowden jumped into the
limelight.
msh/se (AFP, dpa)
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