EU
commissioner urges national leaders to rise to the challenge after European
parliament committee backs draft rules
 |
| Viviane Reding, the EU commissioner for justice. Photograph: Frederick Florin/AFP/Getty Images |
European
leaders are under pressure to respond to the controversy over mass digital
surveillance after the European parliament moved to toughen data privacy rules
and curb data transfers to the US, and following outrage in France at the scale
of the intrusion.
Elysee
Palace sources said François Hollande, who spoke by telephone to Barack Obama on Monday, wanted the issue to be raised at a summit of EU leaders opening on
Thursday in Brussels.
The most
senior EU official dealing with the issue, the commissioner for justice,
Viviane Reding, said Monday evening's European parliament committee vote on new
rules for securing data privacy was a breakthrough and demanded prompt action
from national leaders.
"The
European parliament has thrown down the gauntlet. European leaders must now
rise to the challenge. Heads of state and government should make clear that
common European data protection rules are very much needed and are needed
now," she said.
Following
reports that US surveillance of France extended to monitoring more than 70m phone calls and text messages in less than a month at the turn of the year,
Hollande called Obama to complain. He said the alleged practices were
"unacceptable between friends and allies because they infringe on the
privacy of French citizens".
The French,
backed by the Poles and the European commission, are seeking a commitment to
fast-track the new rules governing data privacy, while the British and the
Scandinavians are stressing that quality take precedence over haste. On Tuesday
the German government said the parliament's draft would need to be overhauled.
The
parliament's civil liberties committee overwhelmingly backed draft rules on data
privacy in what was the first concrete EU response to revelations about the
activities of the US National Security Agency (NSA) and the UK's General
Communications Headquarters (GCHQ).
The new
regime would curb the transfer of personal data to US corporations. It forms a
framework for further negotiations with the 28 governments of EU member states.
The legislation has been gridlocked for almost two years following US pressure
to dilute the package.
The summit
on Thursday and Friday is largely taken up with discussion on how to boost
Europe's digital economy, meaning the issue of digital snooping will inevitably
intrude. The current draft declaring the outcome of the summit talks says:
"It is important to foster the trust of consumers and businesses in the
digital economy through the adoption next year of a strong EU general data
protection framework."
Disclosures
by the US whistleblower Edward Snowden have changed the political climate on
data privacy, lending greater urgency to attempts to frame new EU rules.
Jan Philipp
Albrecht, the German Green MEP steering the legislation through the parliament
in Strasbourg, said: "The vote is a breakthrough for data protection rules
in Europe, ensuring that they are up to the challenges of the digital age. This
legislation introduces overarching EU rules on data protection, replacing the
current patchwork of national laws."
Parts of
the draft rules tightly regulating the transfer of data from Europe to America
were dropped previously after intense US lobbying but have been reintroduced to
proscribe the practice unless explicitly allowed.
US
companies providing data services in Europe but not based there would need to
obtain special permission before they could transfer information to and store
it in the US, where it may be tapped by the NSA. They would face swingeing
fines if found to be in breach.
The draft
supported by MEPs on Monday forms the basis for further negotiation with the 28
EU governments and the European commission, meaning it is likely to be altered
substantially before coming into force. The aim is to have the new regime
agreed by next spring and in force by 2016, but that looks unlikely. The 28
governments are still trying to reach a common negotiating position.
Tension
between Paris and Washington over claims that the NSA engaged in widespread
phone and internet surveillance of French citizens persisted on Tuesday after
Le Monde detailed US methods of spying on French diplomats in Washington and at
the UN in New York.
In a second
day of stories based on Snowden disclosures, the French daily said NSA internal
memos detailed "the wholesale use of cookies by the NSA to spy on French
diplomatic interests at the UN and in Washington".
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