Strengthening European Security and Intelligence Cooperation
On October 24, 2024, the Centro Nacional de Inteligencia (CNI) and the Intelligence College in Europe (ICE) held an outreach event at the École Royale Militaire in Brussels, with the participation of key EU officials, national Points of Contact (POCs) from ICE member states, selected Intelligence Services officials and influential think tankers. The event provided a platform for senior officials and intelligence leaders to discuss the evolving role of intelligence in the European Union and focused on the strategic value of intelligence in decision-making as well as the collaborative frameworks within the EU.
The day began with welcome addresses by Mr. Arturo Relanzón, CNI Secretary General, and Mr. François Fischer, ICE Permanent Secretariat Director. Both of them have stressed the relevance and the timeliness of such a conference, the first made in Brussels on Intelligence services and the European Union institutions, just at the time where the future of SIAC (1), with a view on “Strengthening SIAC”, and the Niniisto report were to be discussed (2).
The conference itself was organised mainly around three roundtables moderated by former Nato ASG Intelligence Freytag von Loringhoven, by ICE.PS Director and by SG CNI, high-level roundtables followed by a strategic speech from the EEAS Secretary General :
The first morning roundtable has examined the functional development of EU intelligence, from SITCEN to INTCEN and the Single Intelligence Analysis Capacity (SIAC) before focusing on the EU needs and the ways to ensure the timely redistribution of intelligence to all the relevant EU institutions, and not only EEAS or the PSC. The two directors of SIAC, Mr Daniel Markic and General Baev, have also insisted, in a time when partnership with like-minded countries is growing massively, be it in Nato or in bilateral format, on the need to maintain SIAC as the single point of entry for strategic intelligence.
The second roundtable has allowed three major intelligence EU customers, Mr Bartjan Wegter, the EU CT Coordinator, Mr Ilkka Salmi, DDG Commission in charge of the Security, and Mr Francisco Fontan, the HRVP Head of Cabinet, to express their needs and comments.
In these two roundtables was emphasised the importance of intelligence for EU policy-makers. Panellists offered their perspectives on trust-building among member states and between Member states and the institutions. Discussions on the need to adapt to the policy rh ythm, to ensure relevance and timeliness has led to some new ideas, especially on the interest to brief directly high ranking EU decision-makers as SIAC has begun to do.
The afternoon session has allowed the General Director of Lithuania and the Deputies of DGs from Belgium and France to highlight the complementarity of internal, external, and military intelligence services, a strong point of the SIAC concept.
Mr. Stefano Sannino, Secretary-General of the EEAS, has then given the last lecture of this very dense conference with a forward-looking perspective on EU security, insisting on the need to adapt to the new EU “ecosystem”, i.e. the new EU security paradigm in terms of military & security defence, in terms of economic security and the need of “all of society” approach to tackle all the threats. Inter alia, he thanks the Member States services for their inputs, through the EU Threat assesments, to the strategic Compass.
This very timely ICE outreach event underscored the EU’s commitment to fostering a more unified intelligence community through trust and collaboration. Very important also, the need for the intelligence & security services to be more heard in Brussels has been highlighted by various EU actors.
In a notable prelude on October 23, ICE and SIAC signed a letter of intent to enhance cooperation, therefore reaffirming their dedication to shared training and operational support and highlighting the unity of the intelligence community in Brussels.
ICE.PS thanks here the Spanish Presidency but also our Belgian friends for all their mobilisation to ensure the full success of this first conference in Brussels on this topic; a conference which was built on the experience gained on 31st of May and 1st of June 2023 during a first Ecole Royale Militaire conference organised by the VSSE and on 19-20 of September 2023 during the conference organised in Madrid with the full support of Ortega y Gasset foundation.
(1) The civ/mil Single Intelligence Analysis Capacity, regrouping the forces of the civilian EU INTCEN and the military EUMS.INT.
(2) Despite some first leaks in the press the days before, the report drafted by the former Finn President was released 5 days after the Conference.
Access the closing remarks by Mr. Arturo Relanzón, Secretary General of the CNI, here!