The National Security Agency’s surveillance “has been excessive,”...

The National Security Agency’s surveillance “has been excessive,” said German Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière during the opening panel session of a security conference in Munich on Friday. Countering the assertion of U.S. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Mich., that some media reports on NSA surveillance are factually incorrect, de Maizière said an easy way to end dependency on ex-NSA contractor Edward Snowden for such information would be if U.S. government officials would share information with German colleagues directly. De Maizière also said during the session, which was packed with heads of state, ministers and security experts, that he was not expecting too much from a no-spy agreement. Countering allegations by Rogers that the U.S., too, was a target of broad espionage activities, de Maizière said that “we don’t spy on the government.” Rogers rejected allegations NSA could be involved in industry espionage. “If they do it, they go to jail,” he said. The lawmaker warned Europe against losing sight of what is the real threat. “We work through it as a family,” he said with regard to the loss in trust. “But the Chinese are on your networks, the Russians are on your networks. The Iranians are and the North Koreans are buying capacity to get on.” Rogers warned against commingling the negotiations of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) Agreement with spying revelations. Elmar Brok, member of the European Parliament, warned if the U.S. would not move, for example, with regard to the long-debated data protection framework agreement, TTIP was doomed to fail in the European Parliament. Representatives of Microsoft, Huawei and others called for better defenses, but also global standards. The security conference was to have ended Sunday, with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Saturday to have talked about a so-called transatlantic renaissance.