Daily thousands of commuters pass through the offices of the Brussels Kortenberglaan near the Cinquantenaire. In one of the anonymous blocks the heart of European intelligence. True Here, houses more than 140 intelligence experts from all EU Member States. They work for the EU Intelligence Analysis Centre (INTCEN), the Information Directorate of the Military Staff and the Situation Room.
“To be clear: we are not operational intelligence. We have no interception capability, put no clandestine operations and keep any personal information to, “says Ilkka Salmi. For three years, the former CEO of the Finnish state security at the head of the INTCEN, where over thirty intelligence officers from EU Member States and as many officials and diplomats working.
“Our mission is strategic intelligence,” says Salmi. ”The secret services of the 28 EU Member States to send us on a voluntary basis by analysis reports – no raw intel . We put the puzzle pieces together and write it then reports to support the policy work of the European External Action Service. ”
And then there’s the Situation Room (SITROOM), staffed by 33 employees. Salmi: “They are a kind of European 911. They monitor permanently open sources such as the media and social networks. ”
Produces an average of about five hundred INTCEN reports, half with the classification “ restreint ”, the other half bears the stamp”confidential ”or” secret ”. Salmi: “We focus include the Middle East and the Syrian crisis. How the situation will develop further?What about the chemical weapons or the massacres of the civilian population? What consequences are there for the refugee situation? Could the crisis spread to the region? ”
Military intelligence specialists
The intelligence directorate of the EU Military Staff has a similar command INTCEN. ”Our main mission is timely to identify which could pose a threat to the EU and to provide insight into regional developments for the EU are important. Understanding trends’ The words of Georgy Alafuzoff, former chief of the Finnish military intelligence (another Finn so) and since 2013 head of department of the Intelligence Directorate. ”We are the military intelligence specialists within the EU. Our approach is military, but we are working closely with the INTCEN. That military and civilian intelligence analysts work so closely, is quite unique. ”
“Naturally, our attention in the first place is given to regions with challenges and problems confronting the EU interests: the Horn of Africa, in view of our military operation in Somalia, Mali, where a military operation is running and the Central African Republic where the EU is active military in the future. “
Counterterrorism
Gilles de Kerchove, EU counterterrorism czar © RV
A much smaller player in the EU’s intelligence community finally, the anti-terrorism coordinator. The Belgian Gilles de Kerckhove and his team – four consultants and two persons who provide administrative support – does not carry out intelligence work, but formulates recommendations on counter-terrorism for European policy makers. Therefore, they have maintained permanent contacts with leading figures from the intelligence services of EU Member States and beyond. File the Syriëstrijders is currently a priority for the Kerchove.
Ex-state security
Securing some 570 specialists in Brussels buildings, employees and classified documents of the EU.
Besides all this intelligence the European institutions also have an impressive security apparatus. Securing some 570 specialists in Brussels buildings, employees and classified documents of the Council, the Commission, the Parliament and the External Action Service. An additional task is to make all kinds of security threats-from bicycle theft to cyber attacks. Employees aware
Remarkably, the security directorates belated established. Really Although the Commission since the sixties has become a target for foreign secret services, its security became professionalized in the late eighties. Today, the department is headed by the Belgian Guido Vervaet, counterintelligence department is managed by compatriot Michel De Wolf, former State Security…
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