European security types are set to meet their US counterparts in Washington next week as European Union nations, incensed by reports of US snooping, link negotiations on a mega EU-US trade deal to same-day parallel talks on intelligence-swopping.
Diplomatic sources told AFP that top security and intelligence experts from both sides of the Atlantic would meet Monday -- when EU and US trade experts are also putting their heads together -- under a deal worked out but not yet finalised by EU ambassadors in Brussels.
"The idea is to hold a first meeting as soon as July 8, which would help justify not delaying the first session of the TTIP" (The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership), an EU diplomat said on condition of anonymity.
Talks on the world's biggest ever free trade deal that were due to kick off Monday came under threat after explosive allegations of US spying on EU offices, with France notably demanding their postponement, but Germany keen to press ahead as planned.
EU Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso eventually announced a compromise Wednesday: the trade talks would open but run in tandem with working groups tasked with probing the extent of the US spying.
Ambassadors from the 28-nation bloc met today to agree a joint response and an EU official who asked not to be named confirmed that "the idea is to launch both talks in parallel."
Britain however was holding up a deal, sources said, by objecting to the idea of an EU-US intelligence swop. The proposal on the table was to set up two groups of experts -- one on intelligence gathering, the other on data privacy and oversight.
"Our British friends probably don't know what side of the table to sit on," quipped an EU diplomat.
The EU says the free trade deal would add about 119 billion euros annually to the bloc's economy, and 95 billion euros for the United States -- giving a much-needed boost to Europe's stagnating economy.
But the snooping claims revealed by US fugitive Edward Snowden have cast a pall over the long-awaited trade talks.
In Strasbourg, the European Parliament demanded "immediate clarification" from Washington and warned of its "potential impact on trans-Atlantic relations".
But lawmakers rejected an amendment by left and far-left parliamentarians to call for the postponement of talks on the trade deal.
Seeking to limit the fallout from the scandal, US President Barack Obama spoke with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday.
