Edward Snowden to give evidence to EU parliament, says MEP

The European parliament is lining up Edward Snowden to give evidence by video link later this month, in spite of resistance by British Conservatives, an MEP has announced.

German Green Jan Philipp Albrecht said MEPs wanted Snowden to appear before the assembly’s committee on civil liberties, justice and home affairs (LIBE). He said it would represent a “great success” for the parliament’s investigation into mass surveillance of EU citizens.

“The basic political will is there,” he said yesterday. “Now we will need to see if we can get a formal majority for a hearing and hope that Snowden can keep his promise to answer questions on the affair”.

The LIBE committee would most likely want to seek answers on what role other European information services have played in gathering data for the NSA, as well as whether servers and data networks in the EU were used as part of the process.

Sources in the European parliament said it was likely committee members would vote in favour of a Snowden hearing, with the only vocal opposition coming from British Conservative MEPs. – (Guardian service)