Brussels has ruled out a German push to include data protection rules in a proposed EU-US free trade pact, arguing that it could derail the talks and ultimately weaken Europeans’ rights to privacy.
Viviane Reding, vice-president of the European Commission and the EU’s top justice official, said data protection was outside the scope of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership negotiation, launched this year by EU leaders and Barack Obama, US president.
“The commission’s view and the position taken by all leaders at the recent European Council is clear: let’s not mix up the phone-tapping issue with the ongoing trade talks,” Ms Reding told the Financial Times.