Von der Leyen wants to snatch European intelligence from Kallas

Brussels – The European Commission has initiated the creation of a new intelligence body under the chairmanship of Ursula von der Leyen. The leak,  reported this morning by the Financial Times, has already been confirmed by the Berlaymont building: the plan is there; it is already more than an idea, even if “still at an embryonic stage.” The objective is not new; it is to improve the sharing and use of information collected by national intelligence services. But it is part of a trend towards the centralisation of power in von der Leyen’s hands, which would empty the External Action Service (EEAS) of another of  its prerogatives. 

According to the British newspaper, the move would be opposed by senior officials of the EEAS, within which the European Union’s Situation and Intelligence Centre—the INTCEN—already exists, placed under the direct authority of the High Representative for Foreign Affairs, today the Estonian Kaja Kallas. Moreover, the plan—which aims to involve officials seconded from national intelligence agencies—has reportedly not yet been formally communicated to all 27 member states, historically reticent to invest in integrating their own spy agencies. Two sources admitted to the Financial Times that European chancelleries are likely to oppose the project. 

“We are in the initial phase,” confirmed today Balazs Ujvari, spokesperson for the European Commission, explaining that “the creation of a dedicated cell within the Secretariat General is being considered,” which “will complement the work of the Commission’s Security Directorate and will work closely with the respective services of the European External Action Service.” A few more indications were given by Paula Pinho, chief spokesperson for the executive: the unit “will be quite small,” she said, the number of people who will be part of it “is more likely to be counted on one hand than two or three,” and it aims to “strengthen the structures that already exist” in the EEAS. 

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and High Representative for Foreign Affairs Kaja Kallas [Credits: European Commission]

The sharing of intelligence information is an extremely sensitive topic for member states. However, the hybrid war operations conducted by Russia and Belarus against the EU bloc and the threat of American disengagement from the European continent (Trump, this spring, had temporarily suspended intelligence support to Ukraine) reveal the urgency of improving the response at the EU level. “The intelligence services of the EU member states know a lot. The Commission knows a lot. We need a better way to put all this information together and be effective and useful to our partners. In the intelligence field, to get something, you have to give something back,” a source told the British newspaper. 

At the same time, since Josep Borrell left the leadership of the EEAS to Kaja Kallas, von der Leyen has gradually nibbled away at various competences at the head of EU diplomacy, who is responsible together with the member states for the Union’s foreign policy. She appointed a Commissioner for Defence within her college and created a Directorate General for the Mediterranean, ranging as far as the Persian Gulf, at the head of which she put Stefano Sannino, former Secretary General of the European External Action Service. Moving the intelligence service to the Berlaymont would be a further step toward defining von der Leyen’s “war cabinet.” The only woman in command.