The parliament of the European Union has passed a non-legislative resolution on mass surveillance. In it, it calls the member states to drop charges against Edward Snowden and to grant him protection.

Just read the press release on this (link at bottom). While the resolution itself was approved by “342 votes to 274, with 29 abstentions”, the part on Snowden was voted upon extra:

By 285 votes to 281, MEPs decided to call on EU member states to “drop any criminal charges against Edward Snowden, grant him protection and consequently prevent extradition or rendition by third parties, in recognition of his status as whistle-blower and international human rights defender”.

Great step with a close vote. Feels like the EU is getting ready to step up against the US some more? They do look on their member-states as well though:

Parliament is concerned about “recent laws in some member states that extend surveillance capabilities of intelligence bodies”, including in France, the UK and the Netherlands. It is also worried by revelations of mass surveillance of telecommunications and internet traffic inside the EU by the German foreign intelligence agency BND in cooperation with the US National Security Agency (NSA).

And on the work of the Comission as well:

In general, MEPs consider the Commission’s response so far to Parliament’s 2014 resolution “highly inadequate” given the extent of the revelations of mass surveillance. “EU citizens’ fundamental rights remain in danger” and “too little has been done to ensure their full protection,” they say.

Maybe not everything is lost, yet ;)

Update: Article on DailyDot

There is an article on the DailyDot (Link at bottom) that reports on some early reactions including references to Snowden twittering about this. But it also mentions some possible implications. It claims that

The United States has extradition treaties with all European nations, and a pronouncement not to honor such an agreement would be nearly unprecedented.

The “nearly” might be an interesting thing to look at here. But actually Europeans should start thinking on a different basis about these things. Unless they get military bases in the US, they probably should get rid of the US bases they have, for example? Yes, the US is the biggest economical player. But the EU is a big market, right? And the EU is not alone, what about Russia and China? They probably won’t take the side of the US here. This topic has many dimensions …

ClearNet Links:

  • http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/news-room/content/20151022IPR98818/html/Mass-surveillance-EU-citizens%27-rights-still-in-danger-says-Parliament
  • http://www.dailydot.com/politics/edward-snowden-european-union-protection-vote/?tw=dd