A top EU official says ties with the US could suffer over a report that America bugged EU offices. Source: AAP
A "SHOCKED" European Union is angrily awaiting explanations from Washington following allegations of US spying on EU offices, which could have a "severe impact" on relations.
Martin Schulz, the president of the European Parliament, said in a statement: "I am deeply worried and shocked about the allegations of US authorities spying on EU offices", both in Brussels and the United States.
"If the allegations prove to be true, it would be an extremely serious matter which will have a severe impact on EU-US relations."
Schulz demanded full and speedy clarification from the US authorities.
The German weekly Der Spiegel on Sunday published a report it claimed was based on confidential documents, some of which it had been able to consult via the fugitive US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden.
One document, dated September 2010 and classed as "strictly confidential", describes how the NSA kept tabs on the European Union's diplomatic mission in Washington, Der Spiegel said.
Microphones were installed in the building and the computer network infiltrated, giving the agency access to emails and internal documents.
The EU delegation at the United Nations was subject to similar surveillance, the newspaper said: the leaked documents referred to the Europeans as "targets".
The spying also extended to the 27-member bloc's Brussels headquarters.
Der Spiegel referred to an incident "more than five years ago" when EU security experts discovered telephone and online bugging devices at the Justus Lipsius building.
In 2003, the EU announced it had found phone taps in the building targeting the offices of several countries, including Britain, France and Germany. It was not immediately clear if Der Spiegel was referring to this case.
US spying was "out of control", said Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn.
"The US would do better to monitor its intelligence services instead of its allies," he added.
Even before the latest allegations, the EU's Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding wrote to US attorney general Eric Holder earlier this month calling for answers about its internet spy program.
"Fundamentally, this is a question of trust," Reding said in a June 14 speech. "Trust of citizens towards their governments and to the governments of partner nations."
The top-secret PRISM program collects and analyses information from internet and phone users around the world, with access to data from Google, Yahoo! and other internet firms.
US officials say the information gathered is vital in the fight against global terrorism.
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