By Francis Tuschek, Staff Writer
An EU report has called on European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to create a “fully fledged” intelligence agency to coordinate the clandestine activity of member states. However, even proponents of the idea admit it would be costly and unpopular.
Penned by former Finnish President Sauli Niinisto, the report outlines the EU’s readiness for war, and makes a multitude of vague recommendations. Officials in Brussels are advised, for example, to cultivate a “preparedness culture,” and to “strengthen civil-military coordination frameworks.”
One of the more concrete recommendations is that the EU create “a fully-fledged intelligence cooperation service, serving all EU institutions and member states.” The agency, the report states, would collect intelligence from national-level agencies in order to “serve both strategic and operational needs of EU-level policy-planning and decision-making.”
While the proposed agency was described by Politico as a “CIA-style spy service,” the report makes no mention of it carrying out clandestine operations outside the EU’s borders, which is the CIA’s role within America’s sprawling intelligence apparatus. Instead, such an agency would “coordinate specific counter-espionage tasks” and help member states “counter threats against them posed by hostile foreign intelligence services.”
Speaking at the launch of Niinisto’s report, von der Leyen admitted that member states will probably be reluctant to allow Brussels bureaucrats to oversee their intelligence sectors. For now, she said, the EU will focus on “strengthening information sharing” instead.
Niinisto also admitted that, while researching the report, he encountered “many critical voices” from member states concerned about increasing the bloc’s budget to fund this agency.
If adopted, the report’s recommendations would mark yet another expansion of the EU’s powers. Two years ago, the bloc adopted its first common defense strategy, which authorized the creation of a 5,000-strong “rapid deployment” force. Last month, von der Leyen named former Lithuanian Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius as the EU’s first ever defense commissioner.
Earlier this month, Kubilius said he would work on ramping up arms production across the bloc, declaring that “we must be ready to meet Russia militarily in six to eight years.”
Kubilius has also called on the EU to pursue regime change in Moscow, and to sponsor “democratic forces” working to topple President Vladimir Putin’s government.