Reding from Washington: “I am here to help rebuild trust” | neurope.eu

Reding from Washington: “I am here to help rebuild trust” | neurope.eu

Completely aligned with Angela Merkel’s position on NSA spying scandals, Vice-President Viviane Reding repeated from Washington D.C.: “Friends and partners do not spy on each other. For ambitious and complex negotiations to succeed there needs to be trust among the negotiating partners. It is urgent and essential that our partners take clear action to rebuild trust”.

The Vice-President of the European Commission spoke yesterday at an event on "Towards a more dynamic Transatlantic area of growth and investment" organised by the Peterson Institute for International Economics, the Johns Hopkins University's School for Advanced International Studies (SAIS).

EU – US free trade negotiations were in the centre of  the event’s programme, though “haunted” by the continuing revelations of EU citizens being bugged by the US secret services. Vivian Reding’s position was positive towards the Transatlantic agreement, but she did not fail to underline  that there are “issues that will easily derail it”.

“We want to give the biggest possible boost to the transatlantic economy by opening our markets to each other. The objective is simple but negotiations are anything but simple. There are many challenges ahead. Yet if they are handled well and on the basis of mutual trust and confidence the results of the negotiations can be worth the effort”, she said.