Friday 17 January 2014

Merkel's European anti-espionagy treaty will end up where it belongs - the trashcan

The BND is conducting confidential negotiations on a European anti-espionage treaty.

One wonders what the professionals at the German foreign intelligence service BND in private say about chancellor Angela Merkel, who has ordered them to negotiate a hopeless no-spying treaty:

In the aftermath of the Snowden revelations, Germany "is negotiating with the EU member states a European anti-espionage agreement," the Süddeutsche and public broadcaster NDR reported.
Such a pact had been discussed confidentially for months in Berlin and would commit the countries of the 28-nation bloc "to refrain from mutual espionage", both political and economic, the daily said.
The envisioned agreement "would allow surveillance only for previously agreed purposes such as combating terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction," said excerpts of the Thursday report.
"In addition, the services of the 28 member states would commit not to ask other intelligence agencies for data on their own citizens if this is not also permitted under national law," it added.
Germany's foreign intelligence service the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND) was leading the talks at the request of Merkel, who wanted to reach a pact on EU "common intelligence standards," it said.
BND vice president Guido Mueller had led at least three rounds of talks so far.
While the foreign intelligence services of member states broadly agreed on the goals, several countries, led by Britain, opposed a formal agreement, said the report citing unnamed delegation sources.

No comments: