EU Commission flies to Washington with old mobile phones for fear of US spying

At the IMF and World Bank Spring Meetings, European commissioners will use only analogue devices to avoid intrusion into systems. Precautions reveal growing mistrust between the EU and the US

Old mobile phones with prepaid cards and computers with essential functions: this is the unusual technological equipment with which the EU delegation is preparing to attend the Spring Meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, scheduled to take place in Washington from 21 to 26 April. The precaution, reported by the Financial Times, was ordered by the EU Commission to avoid the risk of possible surveillance activities by the US services.

According to sources quoted by the financial newspaper, Brussels has asked its commissioners and officials not to carry smartphones, tablets or other devices that could leave digital traces or be vulnerable to computer intrusion. These measures have already been taken during missions to Ukraine and China, and are now being extended to the United States, marking a further deterioration in the climate of trust between the two sides of the Atlantic.

‘They are worried that the US could penetrate the Commission’s systems,’ one official told the Financial Times. Another stated even more sharply: ‘The transatlantic alliance is over’.

Three senior representatives of the European executive will travel to the American capital: Economic Affairs Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis, Financial Services Commissioner Maria Luís Albuquerque and Jozef Síkela for Development Assistance. This is a clear sign of how the tension between the EU and the US, already exacerbated by the contrasts on duties, big tech and defence policy, is also affecting trust in digital infrastructures.

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