WRITTEN QUESTION P-1333/01

by Ilka Schröder (GUE/NGL) to the Council

(24 April 2001)

Subject: Integration of European intelligence structures

In recent weeks, several commentators have argued that the establishment of EU military structures under the common foreign and security policy, such as the setting up last February of the Political and Security Committee, the EU Military Committee and the Military General Staff, will inevitably culminate in the setting up of the EU's own intelligence service. Particularly during the Kosovo conflict, it is reported that military contingents from the EU Member States involved became painfully aware of just how dependent they were on information supplied to them by US intelligence.

Does the Council share the view that Europe's own intelligence capabilities are indeed lacking?

If the Council intends to draw from the above the conclusion that the EU should establish its own intelligence structures, will this be achieved by the integration of existing national structures or by the creation or reassignment of the Union's own structures?

If measures have already been taken to establish or to integrate such structures, what progress has been made, and what are the plans for the future?

Reply

(21 November 2001)

1. Since the Cologne European Council in June 1999, intelligence has been mentioned recurrently as one of the strategic capabilities that needs developing (the other strategic capabilities lagging behind are command and control as well as strategic air and naval transport). Together with efforts to improve operational aspects such as availability, deployability, sustainability and interoperability, development of the strategic capabilities is needed so as to ensure that the military forces covered by the Headline Goal (i.e. the 60 000 troops available for deployment within 60 days for a mission of at least one year) are militarily self-sustaining, an important requirement set by the Heads of State and Government.

2. The Military Capabilities Commitment declaration, made public after the Capabilities Commitment Conference of 20 November 2000, states that in regard to intelligence, apart from the image interpretation capabilities of the Torrejon Satellite Centre [which will become an agency of the European Union from the beginning of 2002], Member States:

- offered a number of resources which can contribute to the analysis and situation monitoring capability of the European Union;

- nevertheless noted that serious efforts would be necessary in this area in order for the Union to have more strategic intelligence at its disposal in the future.

At the Conference, Member States also committed themselves to medium and long term efforts to improve their strategic capabilities still further. Some Member States undertook to improve the Union's guaranteed access to satellite imaging, thanks in particular to the development of new optical and radar satellite equipment (Helios II, SAR Lupe and Cosmos Skymed).

3. In terms of situation analysis, the Union has (or will have) at its disposal the following capacities:

(i) the European Union Military Staff, whose functions are, in particular:

- to perform early warning and situation assessment;

- to monitor potential crises by relying on appropriate national and multinational intelligence capabilities;

- to supply the Situation Centre with military information and receive[s] its output;

- in crisis situations, to request and process specific information from the intelligence organisations and other relevant information from all available sources.

(ii) the European Union Satellite Centre, a new agency of the EU that incorporates the relevant features of the parallel WEU structure;

(iii) staff capable of explaining interpreted satellite images, within the pol-mil structure in the Council Secretariat;

(iv) the joint EU Situation Centre, with civilian and military staff.

4. The points just made underline an important fact: while it will have situation analysis and interpretation capacities, the European Union as such will not have its own intelligence service. It will have an Intelligence Division as part of the EU Military Staff, which will rely on intelligence that the Member States are willing to provide, as well as on information made available by the Commission, in line with point 5 of Declaration No 6 annexed to the Treaty of Amsterdam.