Bloomberg View: Crocodile Tears Over Surveillance

Some European Union officials have called for suspending talks on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership over revelations that the U.S. has been spying on the EU’s official communications. As Elmar Brok, chairman of the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, put it, “How are you supposed to negotiate when you have to worry that your negotiating positions were intercepted?”

Reports in the German magazine Der Spiegel, based on classified documents obtained by former American intelligence contractor Edward Snowden, started the fuss. They say the U.S. National Security Agency wiretapped diplomatic missions in Washington and New York, infiltrated computer networks, and eavesdropped in Brussels. European Parliament President Martin Schulz said that if the reports were true, “it is a huge scandal.” German Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger said such surveillance would be “utterly inappropriate.”