Merkel Aide Says Obama Spying Curbs Fall Short as Damage Sticks

An ally of German Chancellor Angela Merkel said President Barack Obama’s pledge to limit global surveillance by spy agencies isn’t persuasive, leaving U.S.- European relations at the lowest ebb since the Iraq war.

Leverage to press Obama for further changes includes a pact that gives U.S. anti-terrorism investigators access to bank transaction data, which the European Union should suspend, Philipp Missfelder, the foreign-policy spokesman for Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union in parliament, said in an interview.