REMEMBER WHEN OBAMA WAS GOING TO GET ALONG WITH THE EUROPEANS, UNLIKE THAT DUMB COWBOY BUSH? Distrust of US surveillance threatens data deal.

European privacy regulators are putting U.S. surveillance practices under the microscope, this time with a crucial transatlantic data deal hanging in the balance.

Legal and privacy advocates say European nations are poised to strike down the deal if they decide the U.S. hasn’t done enough to reform its spying programs.

The new test comes after the European Commission and the Commerce Department — after months of tense negotiations — reached a deal this week permitting Facebook, Google and thousands of other companies to continue legally handling Europeans’ personal data.

Critics though have long warned that unless the U.S. overhauls its privacy and national security laws, there is no legal framework that can stand up in European court, where privacy is considered a fundamental right under the EU Charter.

The joke, of course, is that the Euros are doing just as much spying.