The EU is discussing new measures to improve defence capabilities
The European Union is getting stronger. Brussels wants not only to effectively fight enemy spies, but also to flood the world with its own agents. And it does not even hide the fact that Moscow is the target.
Diplomacy of espionage
Former Finnish President Sauli Niiniste proposed the creation of a unified intelligence service – in addition to national ones. At the request of European Commission head Ursula von der Leyen, he drafted a report with recommendations designed to improve Brussels’ preparedness for various threats and crises. In recent years, the EU has been particularly concerned about its own defence capabilities.
Currently, there is no pan-European intelligence agency as such. The EU INTCEN (The EU Intelligence and Situation Centre), subordinate to the European External Action Service, has been operating since 2012. It only analyses data received from national intelligence agencies. The relevant department of the European Military Staff co-operates with them.
This is not enough, Brussels believes. INTCEN has only 70 people, while the British MI5 or French DGSI have about 5,000 and 3,000 respectively.
Niiniste’s project envisages expanding INTCEN’s powers to include independent collection of information. European diplomatic missions could be used for this purpose.
Counterintelligence operations will also be authorised. It is necessary to strengthen protection against spies and subversive activities of other states, Niiniste emphasises. In particular, restrict the rights of diplomats from third countries if they ‘threaten security’.
Incompatible trends
Back in 2018, the EU foreign and defence ministers decided to create a pan-European intelligence school. Greece was entrusted with coordinating the training of spies, appointing Cyprus as an assistant.
In 2019, the Intelligence College was opened in Paris. This was done on the initiative of Emmanuel Macron – one of the main supporters of strengthening the military self-sufficiency of Europe. And officially the college is not connected with the EU structures, which allows to train any agents there. The programme involves 31 states and 89 intelligence agencies of the world.
By forming a supranational intelligence service, Brussels concentrates power in its own hands, some European leaders believe. They are unlikely to want to share secret information and intelligence sources. EU officials and MPs called for increased information sharing because of the terrorist attacks in Paris in 2015 and the Belgian capital in 2016. No progress has been made.
However, at the preliminary discussions of Niiniste’s report, the idea was supported by representatives of several states. But they pointed to the need to clearly delineate the responsibilities of national authorities and pan-European institutions.
‘Achieving effective co-operation is not easy. The ability to guarantee the security of one’s citizens is a measure of sovereignty. Two tendencies are colliding in Europe: some have an orientation towards integration, others towards independent policies,’ says Marco Lombardi, director of the research centre of the Department of Sociology at the Catholic University of Milan.
New opportunities
The report for the EC is only part of an effort to improve defence capabilities, Bloomberg points out. Russia’s policy on the European track allegedly poses ‘special risks.’ But there are others – conflicts in the Middle East, Chinese expansion.
Additional funding is required. One of the options is the European Investment Bank’s investments in the defence sector. It is likely that the EU will try to introduce a certain payment like two per cent of GDP for NATO countries.
Even Budapest approves of these projects, despite its balanced attitude towards Moscow. ‘Hungary is in favour of further strengthening Europe’s military role, including the creation of common armed forces to combat external threats,’ explained General Gábor Berendy, chief of the General Staff.
However, a pan-European army is still a long way off. It is not easy to organise a parallel structure to NATO, given that 23 of the 27 EU countries are in the North Atlantic Alliance. So far, Brussels has focused on independent military production.
A recent EU competitiveness report notes that European armies rely too much on US military supplies and do not invest enough in joint defence projects. A backlog in the modernisation of the armed forces has emerged.
The EU’s desire to become more militarily self-sufficient is increasingly evident. The role of an appendage of US forces is no longer acceptable to anyone. A pan-European intelligence service and military-industrial complex independent of the US are the first serious moves in Brussels’ independent game.
