Anderson finds it ridiculous Snowden wasn’t granted asylum in EU

The local MEP also said the surveillance activities by the US and some European states constituted a serious violation of people’s rights.

CIA contractor Snowden revealed through a series of media leaks this Spring that the US National Security Agency (NSA) was monitoring European citizens via a programme called Prism. He is now living in Russia.

In a contribution to a debate at Strasbourg, Ms Anderson said: “I find it ridiculous that no member state is willing to help the man who uncovered this gross abuse of their citizens’ right to privacy.”

She continued: “There needs to be immediate repercussions and guarantees as a result of these findings, especially with regards to the transatlantic trade and partnership agreement with the US.”

Westminster’s Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) recently cleared GCHQ of acting legally in using the Prism programme.

The Committee’s chairman Malcom Rifkind said the authorities “can only operate under acts of parliament.” But the ISC is now to launch a wider inquiry into the matter

Surveillance continues perfectly legally in Northern Ireland, however.

In May 2012, this paper reported how the PSNI spent £1m accessing people’s mobile phone data between 2006/7 and 2010/11.

The money was paid out to mobile phone companies for access to data under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA).