Sunday

28th May 2023

MEPs say No to Snowden asylum in Europe

  • Protesters in Berlin calling for Chancellor Angela Merkel to offer Snowden safety in Germany (Photo: linksfraktion)

A European Parliament committee on Wednesday (12 February) voted against calling for asylum protection for former US intelligence agency contractor and whistleblower Edward Snowden.

Snowden leaked top secret documents last summer to the media exposing the scale of US and British global surveillance. He is in Russia to avoid prosecution from American authorities.

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Become an expert on Europe

Get instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

The vote was part of a larger, non-binding, resolution backed by the MEPs in the civil liberties committee. The resolution condemns the blanket collection of personal data on the scale he disclosed.

A short paragraph, buried among the hundreds of amendments in the committee's National Security Agency (NSA) inquiry report, had requested that EU member states drop criminal charges against him, if any, and “offer him protection from prosecution, extradition or rendition.” But it did not make the final cut.

German Green MEP Jan Philipp Albrecht, one of the drafters behind the deleted clause, told this website that Snowden needs protection on EU territory and not in Russia.

“The EU should have more backbone,” he said.

US lobbying is said to have intensified in the run-up to the vote by MEPs.

The camp opposed to Albrecht’s proposal, aside from conservative and centre-right MEPs, also included some from the centre-left S&D group.

Albrecht in a tweet immediately following the vote said: “It was clear that Europe's Conservatives do not want Snowden, but it's just nasty that the Social-Democrats are in on this, too.”

British centre-left Claude Moraes, who steered the parliament’s three-month NSA inquiry, told reporters in Brussels that it is up to member states, not EU institutions, to grant or withold consular protection.

Instead, MEPs backed a general provision on international protection for whistleblowers.

“What we ended up with I think was a realistic and sensible enhancement for international whistleblowers,” Moraes said.

He described Snowden’s contribution as “a lasting legacy” for international protection.

Not everyone was happy with Moraes’ final text, despite its asylum deletion.

British conservative Timothy Kirkhope voted against it en bloc. He said the committee failed to carry out a serious probe and that MEPs have no business talking about national security issues.

“The end result is the most biased and highly prejudiced report I've seen from the parliament,” he said in a statement.

In other areas, the resolution says the EU parliament should only consent to an EU-US free trade agrrement (TTIP), so long as the final text does not intrude on matters of data protection.

It noted that the existing EU-US terrorist financial tracking programme (TFTP) should be suspended until the Americans provide more detail into allegations they hacked the international wire transfer system, Swift.

The MEPs also asked the European Commission to scrap the EU-US “Safe Harbour” deal, which claims to ensure that US-linked firms follow EU data protection laws when processing the personal data of EU citizens.

The deal is said to contain loopholes which let hundreds of US companies make pretend they do no wrong.

The resolution urges the US to propose a new framework for transfers of personal data which genuinely meets EU data protection requirements.

For their part, the Americans say scrapping the agreement would only serve to interrupt data flows and undermine existing compliance regimes, which currently cover some 3,000 Safe Harbour firms.

A member of US President Barack Obama’s NSA review team, Peter Swire, described the agreement to reporters in Brussels in January as a way to create enforceable and transparent safeguards.

“I’ve been impressed with Safe Harbour,” he said.

The Moraes resolution will be voted on in plenary in March.

The article incorrectly described centre-left Claude Moraes as a Liberal MEP. The article was corrected at 7.50 on 13 February.

Investigation

Europe's missing mails

How the EU Commission and national governments delete official emails and text messages — creating areas of decision-making without oversight and control.

MEPs urge Orbán to act to unblock EU money

MEPs tasked with controlling spending of EU funds said they continued to have "great concerns" on how Hungary is handling EU money and called on prime minister Viktor Orbán's government to implement the necessary reforms to unblock suspended EU funds.

Latest News

  1. How the EU's money for waste went to waste in Lebanon
  2. EU criminal complicity in Libya needs recognition, says expert
  3. Europe's missing mails
  4. MEPs to urge block on Hungary taking EU presidency in 2024
  5. PFAS 'forever chemicals' cost society €16 trillion a year
  6. EU will 'react as appropriate' to Russian nukes in Belarus
  7. The EU needs to foster tech — not just regulate it
  8. EU: national energy price-spike measures should end this year

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. International Sustainable Finance CentreJoin CEE Sustainable Finance Summit, 15 – 19 May 2023, high-level event for finance & business
  2. ICLEISeven actionable measures to make food procurement in Europe more sustainable
  3. World BankWorld Bank Report Highlights Role of Human Development for a Successful Green Transition in Europe
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersNordic summit to step up the fight against food loss and waste
  5. Nordic Council of MinistersThink-tank: Strengthen co-operation around tech giants’ influence in the Nordics
  6. EFBWWEFBWW calls for the EC to stop exploitation in subcontracting chains

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. InformaConnecting Expert Industry-Leaders, Top Suppliers, and Inquiring Buyers all in one space - visit Battery Show Europe.
  2. EFBWWEFBWW and FIEC do not agree to any exemptions to mandatory prior notifications in construction
  3. Nordic Council of MinistersNordic and Baltic ways to prevent gender-based violence
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersCSW67: Economic gender equality now! Nordic ways to close the pension gap
  5. Nordic Council of MinistersCSW67: Pushing back the push-back - Nordic solutions to online gender-based violence
  6. Nordic Council of MinistersCSW67: The Nordics are ready to push for gender equality

Join EUobserver

Support quality EU news

Join us