Earlier quoted context omitted.
> How would US espionage force the EU from prosecuting or legislating against these companies? Well, how about evesdropping on EU meetings where such actions is discussed, and taking the appropriate actions / applying pressure to favor european officials that are against them or remove from office officials that are in favor?
What are "the appropriate actions"? What pressure do you apply? You usually have nothing they want. As a result, pressure you can apply is the same with or without knowing the content of the meetings (IE essentially "take your ball and go home"). Also, you know the content of the meetings because they tell you their positions. In very formal letters. That they will be held to in court. It's not like any of this is se…
Blackmail them. Bribe them. Make them a counter offer under the table that gives them some benefits. Expose something they'd done (that you know because of spying on them) to the press. Play into their parties politics to get them ousted. Sponsor your own lackeys to outvote them.
>How do you "favor officials that are against them"? They are appointed.
Lackeys are appointed all the time too (which can also be their bosses). The number of people paid by agencies like CIA to take specific action against their countries' interest is staggering.
>Can you point out any that were removed from office?
Here's a recentish example: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_v._Strauss-Kahn
It's incredible how easy you can setup this kind of situations to "happen" to people you want to take out of the game.
Sometimes you don't even have to set them up, you just know their tendencies (from watching them) and just decide when it's best time to act on them or ignore them.
Of course, those actions being covert, and the quality of police work being what it is, don't expect those things to be unmasked in time and be able to be proved 100%. Usually we learn about those manipulation after decades, when somebody opens his mouth, or some files are declassified.
But if you study the post-war history of places like Latin America, Italy, Greece, etc, you can find tons of such instances that have been verified (by declassified agency files, court documents, reporting etc).
Here's some convenient one-tome insight on such affairs (the critisicm to which has been pedantic BS):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confessions_of_an_Economic_Hit_...