Europe is annoyed, but will end up negotiating

Published on 5 July 2013 at 13:10

Despite the "indignation and grand statements" following revelations of US surveillance of the EU, threats it would block the start of talks on a Free Trade Agreement (TTIP) have disappeared, reports El Periódico. The negotiations are set to begin on July 8, after the European Parliament rejected a call from MEPs demanding further details of the nature of the spying, and the Commission came down clearly in favour of continuing with the talks.

The Commission was initially "hesitant, [but] vigorously defended the start without delay" of negotiations, once Germany had "rejected the idea of ​​using [any block] as political weapon against the United States," writes the paper. The European Parliament has meanwhile voted to launch a Civil Liberties Committee inquiry to conduct a "thorough investigation" into the matter, which will present its findings before the end of the year. Meanwhile, the paper notes, that the EU –

will continue to give the United States access to Europeans’ private financial transactions data so they can spy, process and record them, just as they have been doing up till now.

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