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The European Commission is emitting fuels and basic laptops for some staff associated with the US to avoid the risk of espionage, a traditionally reserved mass for travel to China.
Commissioners and senior officials traveling to the IMF and World Bank Spring meetings have been given the new instruction next week, according to four people familiar with the situation.
They said the measures repeat those used in traveling to Ukraine and China, where the standard IT set cannot be included in countries for fear of Russian or Chinese supervision.
“They are concerned about the US in Commission systems,” one official said.
US treatment as a potential security risk underlines how relations have worsened since Donald Trump’s return as US president in January.
Trump has accused the EU that it was set up to “screw the US” and announced 20 percent of the so-called reciprocal fees on Block exports, which he later halved for a 90-day period.
At the same time, he has made overtaking in Russia, pressured Ukraine to deliver control over her assets by temporarily suspending military aid, and threatened to withdraw security guarantees from Europe, promoting a new effort to re -marate the continent.
“The transatlantic alliance is over,” said a fifth EU official.
The White House and the US National Security Council did not immediately respond to commentary requests.
Brussels and Washington are involved in sensitive talks in a number of areas where each party will suit to gather information for the other.
Maroš Šefčovič, EU Commissioner, is holding talks with the Howard Lutnick’s Secretary of Commerce in Washington on Monday in an effort to resolve an escalating trade war.
The EU has delayed its vengeful measures against 21bn € of US exports that it approved because of US tariffs in steel and aluminum.
The US has also attacked the EU regulation for its technology companies and claimed that Brussels is gagging free speech and manipulating elections, such as the controversial exclusion of a candidate to be president in Romania to take advantage of an increase in TIKTOK accounts.
Three commissioners are traveling to Washington for the IMF and World Bank meetings from April 21-26: Valdis Dombovskis, Commissioner of Economy; Maria Luís Albuquerque, Chief of Financial Services; and Joseph Síkela, who deals with the help of development.
The commission confirmed that security councils were recently updated, but refused to comment on the specifics. He said the Bloc’s diplomatic service was involved as it routinely is in such security updates.
Officials said the guidelines for all staff traveling to the US included a recommendation for them to turn off the phones at the border and place them in separate sleeves to protect them from spying if left unattended.
The tips were startling, according to Luuk Van Middelaar, director of the Brussels Institute for Geopolitics, a Think-Tank.
“Washington is not Beijing or Moscow, but it is an opponent who tends to use extra-legal methods to further his interests and power.”
Van Middelaar recalled that the administration of President Barack Obama faced charges of spying on the then German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s phone in 2013.
There is an additional risk when traveling to the US, where the border staff has the right to capture the phones and computers of the visitors and control their contents.
Visiting tourists and academics from Europe have been refused to enter the country after there are social media comments or social media documents on the Trump administration policies on their phones or laptops.
In March, the French government said that a French scholar was denied entry and sent back to France because he had expressed a “personal opinion” of American research policy.
Commission officials have been told to ensure that their visas are in their diplomatic documents “Laissez-Passer” than their national passports.
Additional reporting by Steff Chávez to Washington
