EU Intelligence Service without Democratic Control
The loose cooperation between the intelligence services of the EU Member States has developed into a highly independent network over the past years. Still, while in established democracies a parliamentary committee possesses an insight into the activities of the intelligence service and therefore can control them, this is not the case on the EU-level. The Council acts in the dark, the European Parliament has no say at all.
Javier Solana, the High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) and the Secretary General of the Council, considers it “absurd to complain about the lack of transparency in the EU”. Meanwhile various intelligence service units have been established under his supervision since 2001, such as the European Satellite Centre (EUSC), the Intelligence Division (INT) and the Joint Situation Centre (SitCen). Together they constitute the EU Intelligence Service within the framework of the European Security and Defence Policy.
Two years after his appointment, Javier Solana took the initiative and set up the Situation Centre without the resolution of the Council of Ministers, despite the fact, that according to article 207 of the EC-Treaty only “the Council shall decide on the organization of the General Secretariat”. Since then the EU officials and the national intelligence service experts analyze the security situation in the Member States 24 hours a day under the patronage of the Spaniard and provide essential incentives for the decision making process in the EU.
The Council itself refuses to admit the problems. To the parliamentary question “how democratic and legitimate the current EU legal basis is”, the Council replies: “There are no units on the EU-level that are responsible for intelligence-gathering, since the EU units and agencies are merely recipients of verified intelligence from the Member States.” Therefore “the decisions taken in the Member States themselves are accountable for its democratic control”, reads the response of the Council to this question in January 2009.
This is at least misleading. The intelligence is in fact being gathered on the EU-level. Two leading officials confirm this fact. Frank Asbeck, the Head of the Satellite Centre (EUSC) in Spanish Torrejón, explains: “The EUSC is one of the few operative agencies of the EU.” An unambiguous statement follows: “We consider ourselves an evident extension of the national instances of secret service or military intelligence.” The Satellite Centre is directly involved in the missions of the EU-soldiers, for instance the ESDP-Mission in Darfur, on the Sudanese boarder with Chad. The agents promptly provide the EU-Missions’ Headquarters and Commanders on the ground with relevant information.
The British Intelligence Service agent, head of the Brussels Situation Centre, William Shapcott formulates this more unequivocally. In 2002 he elaborated on this in the British House of Lords: “In the past years we began developing a lot instead of completely relying on the information from the Member States.”
Apart from this, there are around 600 EU-staff members in 120 delegations of the EU Commission worldwide. Through the Directorate General Foreign Affairs they provide the Situation Centre in Brussels with diplomatic information. The so called EU-Monitoring-Missions (EUMM) are even more insightful. The Monitors – this is how the EUMM observers are called – are the detector dogs of the European Security and Defence Policy. They send their tessera to the national headquarters and 10 minutes before that to Javier Solana’s Department in Brussels. “What we receive is often better and more detailed than the material of national services”, one of Solana’s staff members praised their own sources of information. An EU Commission official gloats, “We have our own eyes and ears worldwide.”
Björn Müller-Wille’s warnings remain unheard. The former official of the Swedish intelligence service is a noted EU-Expert and teaches at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst where Prince Harry and Prince William completed their basic military training. “Neither the EU Parliament nor the national Parliaments are accountable for the intelligence departments of the EU” stated the Swedish Expert. This means that Solana’s “soldiers” are free of any kind of democratic control. The Lisbon Treaty does not promise any improvements either.
