France and Germany want to create a European Internet free of U.S. spying

Europe could create its own communications network to prevent data passing through the United States and falling into the hands of surveillance organisations such as the NSA, according to German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Speaking on her weekly podcast on Saturday, Merkel said Germany had been in discussion with France over the idea, which would allow Europeans to send emails and other data without it passing through US networks and servers.

Angela Merkel has been personally spied on by the U.S. National Security Agency, and now she’s taking steps to prevent the same from happening to other European Union citizens. The German chancellor, who will visit French prime minister Francois Hollande on Wednesday, announced this weekend that she will bring up the idea of creating a separate, European Internet. “We’ll talk with France about how we can maintain a high level of data protection,” Merkel said on her weekly podcast. “Above all, we’ll talk about European providers that offer security for our citizens, so that one shouldn’t have to send emails and other information across the Atlantic. Rather, one could build up a communication network inside Europe.”