German Chancellor Angela Merkel is not someone prone to flying off the handle or staging temper tantrums. On the contrary, her patience, caution and aplomb are legendary. And as the revelations about U.S. espionage in Germany mounted over the past year, many Germans grew fed up with her deference and equanimity. There appeared to be no limit to the disrespect that Germany was willing to endure at the hands of its longtime ally across the Atlantic.

But by expelling the Central Intelligence Agency’s Berlin station chief on Thursday in retaliation, Merkel finally called out Washington for its arrogant, intrusive treatment. Though unprecedented in postwar transatlantic relations, this dramatic step is merely symbolic. The substantive option Germany should — and indeed still can — take is to offer National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden political asylum, as opposition politicians have been demanding for some time now. This act shouldn’t be understood as a weightier missive in a game of diplomatic tit-for-tat, but rather as a concrete, constructive step in the direction of addressing the problem of the world’s powers’ out-of-control data gathering at both the diplomatic and private level. It’s high time that the European Union, led by Germany, took the lead on restoring the civil liberties of ordinary citizens robbed of them during the war on terror. Nothing would underscore this priority more clearly than rewarding Snowden with a safe home.

Granting him asylum would also prompt a long-overdue readjustment in the transatlantic relationship, which the expulsion of a single spy chief — a highly conventional way of marking displeasure — won’t do. Certainly, this move by Merkel will ruffle feathers. The U.S. obviously takes for granted that the Federal Republic is much the same humble vassal it was during the Cold War, when it relied on Washington for security and much of its foreign-policy direction. Indeed, “West Germany’s” sovereignty was limited by law, and in addition to more than 200,000 U.S. troops on its territory, the Western allies occupied West Berlin until 1990. And Germans were rightly grateful for the likes of the Marshall Plan, the Berlin Air Bridge, NATO’s nuclear umbrella, unification and even, one could say, democracy as such.

Both Germany and the U.S. have been slow to readjust to the post–Cold War reality of a fully sovereign Germany that has become the de facto leader of the EU — an entity with a population and economy that dwarf that of the U.S. But make no mistake, both Germany and the EU share responsibility for this state of affairs. They have both been far too lethargic about establishing independent, clearly formulated foreign affairs and security policies. Twenty-five years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the EU is still a toddler in the world of geopolitics, and Germany’s foreign policy is so vaguely defined that insiders there quip that “Germany doesn’t even have a foreign policy.”

This is all the more regrettable, as Germany and the EU have principles and precedents for foreign and security policies that could look very different from those of the U.S. in the 21st century, namely ones based largely, though not exclusively, on strategic diplomacy, trade-and-aid, conflict prevention, human rights and democratization. Of course, this kind of orientation couldn’t exclude effective military clout — or they’d remain dependent and beholden to the U.S., just the position they’re struggling with right now.