Bennett calls for Europe to find Snowden a place of safe asylum

Green Party leader Natalie Bennett has called on the EU’s diplomatic leader to act to find US whistleblower Edward Snowden a place of safe asylum.

Mr Snowden is currently believed to be in the transit area in a Moscow airport, and a plane carrying the Bolivia’s president home from Russia was refused permission to fly over several European states on the suspicion that Mr Snowden might be on board, causing a serious diplomatic incident.

Ms Bennett said Catherine Ashton, the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security should be taking a lead in view of the fact that Mr Snowden had clearly acted as a whistleblower, exposing in the PRISM and Tempora programmes what the EU Justice Commissioner has identified as breaches of what should be “mutual trust and good practices in relations between friends and allies”. (1)

Ms Bennett said: “The UK, and many other European states, have whistleblower legislation that explicitly protect individuals who speak out about wrongdoing, and it is clear that Mr Snowden were he a national of those states would be eligible for that protection. Additionally, European states owe him a debt for exposing the action that the US was taking against them.

“The United States should be treating Mr Snowden in this manner, but given this seems unlikely, the European Union, and individual EU states, as beneficiaries of his revelations, have a responsibility to act in ensuring his security.”

The French, German and Finnish Green Parties have each respectively called on their countries to offer asylum to Mr Snowden.

Ms Bennett added: “The normal requirement for someone being in the country in which they are requesting asylum should clearly be waived in this case. Mr Snowden should be given a chance to peacefully and safely reveal further information, and to rebuild his life in a safe haven, whether in Europe or outside it.”

1. http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_SPEECH-13-607_en.htm

Grant whistle blower Snowden asylum say European Greens

The recent revelations about the borderless spying activities against so-called friend EU countries and their institutions by the US National Security Agency (NSA) and the British secret service must lead to a rapid political response according to European Greens.

Rebecca Harms and Dany Cohn-Bendit, Co-Presidents of the Greens/EFA group in the European parliament want to use the debate and resolution already scheduled for next week's Strasbourg plenary session to launch an investigation.

Commenting on the revelations, Rebecca Harms said:

"A special committee of the EU parliament must be launched immediately. We must not postpone the decision to after the summer break. The EU should cancel the agreements on Swift and PNR with the US. Before starting negotiations on a future trade agreement (TTIP) with the US, we need a debate about the infringement of international law by PRISM and Tempora. The last few days have shown how urgently we need an international agreement on data protection."

Daniel Cohn-Bendit added:

"Whistleblower Snowden has stood up for human and civil rights, especially those of European citizens. Granting him asylum now is a question of European values.. To leave him stuck in limbo in a no-man's land is ignoble and damages the EU's image.

"We will propose Snowden for the European parliament's Sakharov prize."