7 June 2013
NSA spying revelations leave Europe silent
By Kassandra
New Europe

It is said that the secret of politics is timing. On the morning that the news broke about the US National Security Agency (NSA) had been given "direct access" to personal data by the world's leading tech companies, European Commission President, Jose Barroso and Viviane Reding, the fundamental rights commissioner were nowhere to be seen and their official diaries were blank.

Not all organisations are as opaque as the European Commission on the matter and the Bilderberg Group provided an answer in their list of participants for their current gathering, which showed that Barroso and Reding were in Watford, UK.

Also invited were representatives from several tech firms who stand accused of offering open access to people and companies data.

Efforts to contact the commissioner received a simple reply 'Please note that the Reding cabinet is on a working seminar on 7 June. Your mails will be dealt with on Monday 10 June.'

The day before, Reding attended the Justice and Home Affairs Council, where she vowed "I will fight for a reform of the EU's data protection rules that will strengthen the rights of EU citizens".

Neelie Kroes and the Digital Agenda? New Europe asked "What implications does this have for the citizens and businesses in Europe, all of whose data is almost certain to pass through US servers? What advice do you have for EU  citizens and businesses that are concerned over privacy/industrial espionage?

Silence.

The spokesman for Cecilia Malmström, home affairs commissioner said, "We do not have any comments. This is an internal US matter."

Malmstrong denied saying such a thing on Twitter and gave a small statement saying, "We have seen the media reports and we are of course concerned for possible consequences on EU citizens' privacy. For the moment it is too early to draw any conclusion or to comment further. We will get in contact with our US counterparts to seek more details on these issues."