Merkel Calls for Tougher EU Data Protection Laws

The German Chancellor Angela Merkel is pushing for tougher EU data protection rules to prevent another Prism-style spying scandal. Moreover, she wants to force internet firms active anywhere in the EU to disclose with whom they share customer data.

She also said that she would instruct her interior minister and her justice minister to push for such a rule when interior and justice ministers from the EU Member States meet in Vilnius, Latvia, later this week to discuss a new data protection regime for the EU. Her initiative was welcomed by Viviane Reding, the European Commissioner for Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenships, who called on the other EU Member States to follow her lead.