The European Union could reconsider agreements with the United States on the sharing of air passenger information and financial data, the bloc warned Friday, amid heightened tensions between the two sides over a spying scandal. A team of experts from the EU's executive, the European Commission, will travel to Washington next week for long-scheduled reviews of the two data-sharing programmes, which are meant to help in the fight against terrorism.
"Considering the context in which this conversation will take place, we count on the US' full co-operation in disclosing and sharing all relevant information," Michele Cercone, a spokesman for EU Home Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom, told journalists in Brussels. The programmes' credibility "will be seriously affected" if a "benefit" for EU citizens cannot be demonstrated or if they have not been implemented "in full compliance with the law," Cercone noted. "In such a case, we will be obliged to reconsider if the conditions for their implementation are still met," he added.
Both measures had proven controversial in the EU during their approval process because of privacy concerns. Some political groups in the European Parliament had called for the deals to be reviewed, following allegations by fugitive whistleblower Edward Snowden that the US had spied on European diplomats.
The ensuing uproar in Europe had also put into question whether EU-US talks on a landmark free trade deal could be launched next week. But commission President Jose Manuel Barroso reiterated Friday that "we will not delay the very important negotiations." In parallel, however, several working groups will be set up between the EU and the US to review the issues of data protection and privacy rights, he said. "It's going to be a process that I hope will bring clarification and is very important to build and to reinforce the confidence that is necessary also to pursue very ambitious agreements, namely in the field of trade," Barroso said during a visit to Lithuania. The European Parliament had decided Thursday to launch its own investigation into the spying allegations.