EU parliamentarians concerned over US secret surveillance programmes

The impact of US National Security Agency and other surveillance programmes on EU citizens' privacy and media freedom and the lack of democratic oversight of these programmes were among the key concerns voiced by Members of the European Parliament here on Thursday, in the first of a series of hearings on alleged spying by the US and EU countries. "The aim of this investigation is to determine the impact of these surveillance activities on EU citizens", said leader of the EP Civil Liberties Committee inquiry Claude Moraes. "Surveillance has a huge impact on people. The NSA is not bound by EU laws and does not care about your laws, so it can wiretap anybody in your countries without any kind of warrant", pointed out investigative journalist and computer security researcher Jacob Appelbaum in his opening speech. "This is not a post 9/11 issue - the US has been doing this for a very long time", he added. An EP press release said that the importance of investigative journalism and the need to protect whistleblowers was emphasised by MEPs during the debate. "The key question in this inquiry will be why our systems of check and balances failed", said Dutch MEP Sophia in't Veld . "There should be controls to prevent this type of massive surveillance", agreed German MEP Cornelia Ernst. The Civil Liberties Committee has scheduled 12 meetings to take place before the end of the year. A resolution is to be put to a Civil Liberties Committee vote in December and in the full EP in January 2014.