Germany will send its top intelligence chiefs to Washington next week to seek answers from the White House over allegations US security officials tapped Chancellor Angela Merkel’s mobile phone.
Merkel has demanded action from President Barack Obama, not just apologetic words, following accusations that the US National Security Agency (NSA) accessed tens of thousands of French phone records as well as monitoring her private phone.
“We are talking to the Americans to clear things up as quickly as possible,” the German government’s deputy spokesman Georg Streiter said.
“A high-level delegation will travel for talks with the White House and National Security Agency to push forward the investigation into the recent allegations,” he told a news conference.
Berlin will dispatch the heads of its foreign intelligence agency BND and its domestic counterpart, the BfV. Merkel’s chief of staff Ronald Pofalla, who is responsible for the intelligence services, may also join them.
Speaking at an EU summit yesterday, Merkel said the alleged bugging had shattered trust with the United States.
She demanded Washington agree a “no spying” deal with Berlin and Paris by the end of the year, saying alleged espionage against two of Washington’s closest EU allies had to be stopped.
The White House has denied the United States is bugging Merkel, but Washington officials have refused to say whether it did in the past.
Members of the European Parliament’s civil liberties committee said they will also fly to Washington for talks on Monday and explore “possible legal remedies for EU citizens”.
The rift over US surveillance tactics first emerged earlier this year and had appeared close to resolution, but Berlin said on Wednesday it has obtained information that the United States may have monitored Merkel’s phone.
Earlier this week French newspaper Le Monde reported the NSA had collected tens of thousands of French phone records between December 2012 and this January.
Only three months ago Merkel’s Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich made a similar visit to demand answers in Washington.
The need for another trip has left Germany looking like it was duped and brought fierce criticism of Merkel for not taking a tough enough stance.
“In the summer, we received explanations and assurances,” Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said on Thursday. “Whether we can trust these, that must be examined again.”
State surveillance is a highly sensitive subject in a country haunted by memories of eavesdropping by the Stasi secret police in communist East Germany, where Merkel grew up.
The European Parliament has opened an inquiry into the effect on Europe of US intelligence activities revealed by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. It has also led a push for tougher data protection rules and suspending a transatlantic data-sharing deal.
The Parliament, with 766 members elected from the 28 EU member states, this week voted for an amended package of laws that would greatly strengthen EU data protection rules dating from 1995.
The rules would restrict how data collected in Europe by firms such as Facebook, Yahoo! and Google is shared with non-EU countries, and impose fines of 100 million euros ($138 million) or more on rule breakers.