Germany spied on France and European Commission ‘on behalf of NSA’
Chancellor Angela Merkel, who complained when the NSA allegedly bugged her phone, now faces embarrassing questions over espionage
German intelligence services spied on top French officials and the European Commission on behalf of the American spy agency NSA, according to an article in German media.
Germany's BND foreign intelligence agency helped the National Security Agency (NSA) carry out "political espionage" by keeping watch on "top officials at the French Foreign Ministry, the Elysee Palace and European Commission" the German daily paper Sueddeutsche Zeitung was due to report yesterday.
Long portrayed as a victim of snooping by allies, Chancellor Angela Merkel's government has grappled this week with embarrassing reports of German spying on European firms carried out on behalf of the US.
Citing intelligence agency documents, the Bild daily paper reported on Monday that the German chancellor's office was informed in 2008, during Merkel's first term, of German involvement in US economic espionage but did not react.
According to Sueddeutsche Zeitung, spying on companies could only have taken place in isolated cases as the United States searched for "information on illegal exports".
"The heart [of the problem] is political espionage of European neighbours and institutions of the European Union," the paper claims, citing a source with knowledge of BND's procedures.
In Paris, a French foreign ministry spokesman said: "We are in close contact with our German partners, who have publicly said they would proceed with an internal clarification on these elements reported by the press."