Spain Leads Flagship European Intelligence Training Programme

In 2024, Spain, holding the presidency of the Intelligence College in Europe (IntelCollege), addressed a key need raised by the College’s Steering Committee: ensuring that intelligence officers are equipped to understand European structures and to support EU security and intelligence agencies.

To meet this challenge, Spain’s National Intelligence Centre (CNI) launched a high-level postgraduate course in partnership with the University of Castilla-La Mancha (UCLM) and its renowned Luis Ortega Álvarez Center for European Studies. Delivered in a hybrid format—combining online sessions with in-person classes in Toledo—the programme offers participants an official certification aligned with the European Bologna Framework.

Following the success of the inaugural edition, Spain repeated the initiative in 2024. The second course concluded on Thursday, 11 September, with a certificate ceremony and keynote address by the Secretary General of the CNI, who personally underlined the importance Spain places on this initiative.

This programme stands as a model of cooperation between the intelligence community and academia, directly supporting one of IntelCollege’s core missions: preparing intelligence officers to work effectively together at the European level, whether in minilateral or multilateral formats.

As one of the College’s flagship training programmes, this demanding course fosters a shared knowledge base among participants, deepens their understanding of European institutions, and strengthens the personal and professional bonds that will underpin future cooperation across Europe’s intelligence community.