History
The EU INTCEN has its roots in the European Security and Defence Policy of 1999, which put a group of analysts working on open source intelligence under the supervision of the High Representative Javier Solana in what was then called the Joint Situation Centre. In the wake of the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington of 11 September 2001, Solana decided to use the existing Joint Situation Centre to start producing intelligence based classified assessments.
In 2002, Joint the Situation Centre started to be a forum for exchange of sensitive information between the external intelligence services of France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom. At that time, the Centre's mission was:
- Contribute to early warning (in conjunction with other Council military staff). Sources: open source material, military intelligence, non-military intelligence and diplomatic reporting;
- Conduct situation monitoring and assessment;
- Provide facilities for crisis task force; and
- To provide an operational point of contact for the High Representative.
At the request of Solana, the Council of the European Union agreed in June 2004 to establish within SITCEN a Counter Terrorist Cell. This Cell was tasked to produce Counter Terrorist intelligence analyses with the support of Member States' Security Services.
Since 2005, the SITCEN generally used the name EU Situation Centre (EU INTCEN). In 2012, it was renamed officially renamed European Union Intelligence Analysis Centre (EU INTCEN).
Read more about this topic: Joint Situation Centre
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