Asked whether reports of the freeze in relations were true, government spokesman Steffen Seibert told reporters at a press briefing in Berlin that, "This question is related to the specifics of cooperation between intelligence services… only a responsible parliamentary body can answer it." "Consultations continue," he added.
US intelligence circles expressed concern that their assets could fall into the hands of a German parliamentary commission currently probing NSA activities in the country, the source told Bild.
The row over the United States spying on European targets erupted in mid-April after German media was alerted to the NSA's continued spying in the country, on German and other EU governments, in 2015. It followed the 2013 disclosure by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, who revealed that the agency had been gathering metadata on European targets for years.