Rights of EU spy targets ‘not negotiable’

European leaders have told the US government that the rights of EU citizens subjected to surveillance were “not negotiable”.

Alan Shatter, the justice minister, joined European Commission vice president Viviane Reding in explaining to US attorney general Eric Holder that people in Europe were concerned at the spectre of an American “Big Brother”.

A high-level meeting in Dublin yesterday, under the auspices of the EU presidency, follows on from reports of a massive surveillance operation, codenamed Prism, by the US National Security Agency targeting online communications of non-US citizens.