The European Commission has begun setting up a new intelligence body under president Ursula von der Leyen, in an attempt to improve the use of information gathered by national spy agencies.
The European Commission has begun setting up a new intelligence body under president Ursula von der Leyen, in an attempt to improve the use of information gathered by national spy agencies.
No. Not another opaque Brussels secret-squirrel project with Ursula at the helm. If this is about actually improving analysis and countering disinformation, fair enough, but history says centralising “intelligence” inside the Commission quickly turns into mission creep, politicisation, and a new layer of surveillance with almost no democratic oversight.
Member states already hoard raw intel and mistrust one another, so I expect either useless duplication or a sanitised stream of stuff that fits the Commission’s narrative. If the goal is strategic autonomy from the US, fund proper capabilities and give national parliaments real oversight, instead of another unelected EU body with vague powers.
I’ll judge it on the details: explicit remit, court and parliamentary oversight, strict limits on data collection, and transparency reports. Without those, this is just bureaucracy dressed up as security theatre, and I’m not buying it.