Brussels, November 11 (European Press) –
The European Commission is creating its own intelligence unit that will report to EU President Ursula von der Leyen to respond to the “challenging geopolitical and geoeconomic landscape.”
As an EU spokesperson confirmed to Europe Press, the European executive is “considering how to strengthen its security and intelligence capabilities,” and to do so it is “considering” the creation of a specific unit within its general secretariat. This will depend on the community leader, although the concept of the unit is still under development and no timetable has been set for its implementation.
This team will draw on existing expertise within the Commission and focus on issues such as “security colleges”, the College of Commissioners model initiated by von der Leyen to address geostrategic issues.
The European Executive advocates that the unit will carry out complementary work with the European Commission’s Security Directorate and will cooperate closely with the intelligence services of the EU External Action Service, which has an EU Intelligence and Situation Center (Intcent) that collects intelligence from member states.
A year ago, a report on security and preparedness, commissioned by the European Commission from former Finnish President Sauli Niinistö, called for developing EU-wide intelligence cooperation, although not duplicating the work of national agencies.
Niinisto noted that it is “vital importance” for the head of the community to have “all possible information about threats and crises.” “This is the responsibility of member states, some send information but the issue is the extent of our ability to cooperate and trust between partners,” the former Finnish president said, regarding one of the most sensitive issues in his report, because intelligence is one of the most conservative authorities at the national level.
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