Intelligence and Security
As part of the merger, the intelligence gathering services in the Commission and Council will be merged. These services are the Council's Joint Situation Centre (SitCen) and Watch-Keeping Capability and the Commission's Crisis Room. The Situation Centre has 110 staff and has a cell of intelligence analysts from member states who pool classified information to produce concise reports on important topics. It also runs a 24/7 alert desk based on public sources which then updates EU diplomats via SMS on current events. The Watch-Keeping Capability is composed of 12 police and military officers who gather news from the EU's overseas missions.
The Commission's Crisis Room is run by six commission officials who run a restricted website reporting breaking news on the 118 active conflicts in the world based on open sources and news from EU embassies. It uses scientific tools including statistical analysis and software which scans global TV broadcasts for names and key words. Details on the plans for the new merged intelligence service are still sketchy as of early 2010 but it will not run undercover operations along the lines of national intelligence agencies despite proposals from Belgium and Austria after the 2004 Madrid train bombings.
The Situation Centre and Crisis Room would be merged and headed by the HR. It would be located near the HR's office headed by a director-general with a staff of around 160 people and a budget of 10 to 20 million euro a year. It would have IT experts, scientists, tacticians and seconded intelligence operatives. It would send people into crisis zones to gather information and have 24/7 hotlines to EU delegations around the world. It would give the HR an immediate and powerful asset in an emergency without having to go via the Council's Political and Security committee first. However it is unclear if the Council's Clearing House (or Working Group CP 931 which deals with the EU's terrorism blacklist) would be merged into the EEAS along with these other bodies.
Meanwhile Ashton has appointed a Polish security operative to head a working group designing the security architecture of the EEAS; particularly the physical security of the EEAS building and its communication network with its embassies. It is seen as particularly important due to the EEAS handling sensitive, as discussed above, amid espionage concerns from China and Russia.
In September 2010, job adverts went out to EU institutions and national embassies for three junior posts at the EEAS. One for foreign deployment, one for a multi-lingual internet researcher and one to follow up on open and confidential information sources. The adverts expressed more about the future department's work, in particular at the new director would be expected to travel to global hotspots. The director of the Joint Situation Centre was appointed in December 2010, Finnish security chief Ilkka Salmi.
The High Representative also has authority over the European Defence Agency, EU Institute for Security Studies and the EU Satellite Centre, though these remain autonomous from the EEAS itself.
Read more about this topic: European External Action Service
Famous quotes containing the words intelligence and/or security:
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