WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The European Union has strict privacy standards applying to all citizens’ data and personal information. In February, the European Union enacted the EU-US Privacy Shield to establish guidelines on the US government’s ability to access EU citizens’ personal data.
"The privacy concerns in Europe may make it more difficult to institute some of the types of changes that they should consider to enhance their intelligence collection and intelligence sharing," Olsen said.
Following the November terrorist attacks in Paris and March attacks in Brussels, new attention has been paid to the ability of EU member states to share intelligence information to thwart terrorist attacks.
"What we are clearly seeing in Brussels and in Paris, is the lack of information sharing is hampering their ability to disrupt and respond to these attacks."
According to an official with the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, the European Union has disregarded terrorist screening tools provided by the United States.
US media had reported that one of the suicide bombers in the Brussels terror attacks, Ibrahim Bakraoui, had been placed on the US terrorist watch list.
