UK Restricts US-EU Espionage Talks To NSA and PRISM Only

According to a new report by the Guardian the United Kingdom, with Sweden’s support, is now restricting EU-US discussions with the USA to the NSA and PRISM scandal . Apparently the UK isn’t happy for the USA to continue stalling on the topic and wants the USA to partake in discussions on data privacy and answer questions about the NSA’s PRISM program instead of just talking more broadly about espionage and intelligence.

The UK and Sweden were the only two nations to veto the two broad working groups on espionage and intelligence in favour of a tougher single working group to specifically discuss the NSA’s PRISM program and what that means for Europe. All other European countries voted in favour of the two working groups approach and are not pleased with the UK’s decision. With the UK and Sweden taking a different stance to the rest of Europe it is now up to individual European governments to discuss the issue of intelligence with the USA independently.

A lack of cohesion in the EU has always been a problem when it comes to getting things done and this latest disagreement is no different. The EU has already voted in favour of scrapping a EU-US data sharing deal and France has requested that trade agreement talks between the USA and then EU should be delayed until the NSA spying issue is resolved. We will be sure to bring you the outcome of these crucial talks as they over the next week. These could have major implications for transatlantic cyber-relations between the EU and the USA.

Image courtesy of The People’s Cube