EU Parliament Looks To Iceland In Edward Snowden Discussion

The European Parliament (EP) recently discussed the matter of Edward Snowden, and whether or not to allow him to travel freely around Europe. Iceland came up in this context, and not for the first time.

“There are many people who look to Iceland now with a great deal of optimism,” lawyer Ben Wizner told the EP last Monday, Vísir reports. Snowden’s international team of lawyers reportedly took his case to the EP.

While his lawyers have not formally requested asylum for Snowden within the EU, they argued that she should be allowed to travel around Europe as if he had an EU passport. Snowden has had asylum in the Russian Federation since 2013, and was recently granted a two-year extension.

Icelanders have been very diligent in showing their support for Snowden, and many have argued to grant him asylum in Iceland. Pirate Party captain Birgitta Jónsdóttir went so far as to promise that, if given the Interior Minister position, she would give Snowden Icelandic citizenship.

In fact, Birgitta recently met with Snowden in Moscow.

“I’m still processing the experience,” Birgitta told Grapevine at the time. “[Dr. Lawrence] Lessig has been very busy trying to inspire the electoral college to act in the US. Then, there’s Edward Snowden. People get caught up in the soap opera around Snowden, but everything he does is driven by his belief in democratic process. So it was amazing to sit and brainstorm with these two guys, and ask: ‘What can we do?’ Because we’re at a critical juncture in saving democracy right now.”