The response of European politicians is nothing short of fury. "These acts, if confirmed, would be completely unacceptable," French foreign minister Laurent Fabius said.
"If the media reports are correct," said German justice minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, "this brings to memory actions among enemies during the Cold War. It goes beyond any imagination that our friends in the United States view the Europeans as enemies."
Martin Schulz, president of the European Parliament, issued his own strongly worded statement. "I am deeply worried and shocked," he said. "If the allegations prove to be true, it would be an extremely serious matter which will have a severe impact on EU-US relations. On behalf of the European Parliament, I demand full clarification and require further information speedily from the US authorities with regard to these allegations."
It should be noted that the Guardian, which along with the Washington Post, published the first Snowden revelations, had a separate story on Saturday – which it promptly pulled. The whistleblower in this instance was not Edward Snowden but Wayne Madsen, a former NSA worker who some believe to have been discredited. One of his suggestions was that the USS Cole had been hit by a missile launched from an Israeli submarine.
It is believed that the removed article discusses reciprocal arrangements between European intelligence agencies and the NSA, based on 'trust levels'. The US is trust level one. The four remaining parties to the 'Five Eyes' relationship (sometime known as Echelon; that is, the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand) are trust level two. However, both France and Germany have third party trust relationships with the US. Madsen was apparently "particularly concerned that senior German politicians had accused the UK of spying when their country had a similar third-party deal with the NSA."
Only the Guardian currently knows why it pulled this story; but it would certainly add a new dimension to the European response to Spiegel's revelation. The implication has to be either that the Guardian has lost faith in the veracity of Madsen, or that European politicians are as much in the dark about the European intelligence services as Congress is about the NSA.
Nevertheless, Europe's politicians are concerned over Spiegel's report, going so far as to suggest it threatens the new Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) free trade agreement discussions. "Some EU policymakers said talks for a free trade agreement between Washington and the EU should be put on ice until further clarification from the United States," reported Reuters.
"Partners do not spy on each other," the European commissioner for justice and fundamental rights, Viviane Reding, said at a public event in Luxembourg on Sunday. "We cannot negotiate over a big transatlantic market if there is the slightest doubt that our partners are carrying out spying activities on the offices of our negotiators," Reding said in comments passed on to reporters by her spokeswoman.