and much of the EU internet traffic, including to/from germany, goes through the UK. I'm not sure why I'm being downvoted for pointing out a relevant fact on US and western allies who share intel and basically have tapped most all of the fiber in the world via legal or illegal methods (per the snowden docs).
bingo. The BND and NSA work very closely together even if they aren't in FVEY. This is quite well known, but it makes a lot of sense in the face of Russian/NK/Chinese aggressions. As much as our president wants you to not believe, we are stronger together.