European Union Intelligence and Situation Centre

Updated on Nov 15, 2023

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Preceding agency EU Situation Centre		Employees 70
Formed March 18, 2012 (2012-03-18) Type Directorate in the EEAS Headquarters EEAS building 1046 Brussels, Belgium Agency executive Gerhard Conrad, Director of the EU Intelligence and Situation Centre

The EU Intelligence and Situation Centre (EU INTCEN) is an intelligence body of the European Union (EU).

Since January 2011, the EU INTCEN is part of the European External Action Service (EEAS) under the authority of the EU's High Representative.

Mission

EU INTCEN's mission is to provide intelligence analysis, early warning and situational awareness to the High Representative Federica Mogherini and to the European External Action Service, to the various EU decision making bodies in the fields of the Common Security and Foreign Policy and the Common Security and Defence Policy and Counter-Terrorism, as well as to the EU Member States.

EU INTCEN does this by monitoring and assessing international events, focusing particularly on sensitive geographical areas, terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and other global threats.

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, the Joint 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. In 2012, it was officially renamed European Union Intelligence Analysis Centre (EU INTCEN).

Directors

William Shapcott, a former British diplomat (2001-2010).

Ilkka Salmi, previously the Head of the Finnish Security Intelligence Service (2011- 2015)

Gerhard Conrad, former Head of Foreign Intelligence Section of the BND (2015-)

Organisation

As of 2015, the EU INTCEN is composed of four Divisions:

Analysis. It is responsible for providing strategic analysis based on input from the security and intelligence services of the Member States. It is composed of various sections, dealing with geographical and thematic topics.

Open Source Intelligence.

Situation Room.

Consular Crisis Management.

The total number of EU INTCEN staff in 2012 and 2013 was close to 70.

Single Intelligence Analysis Capacity (SIAC)

Since 2007, the EU INTCEN is part of the Single Intelligence Analysis Capacity (SIAC), which combines civilian intelligence (EU INTCEN) and military intelligence (EUMS Intelligence Directorate). In the framework of the SIAC, both civilian and military contributions are used to produce all-source intelligence assessments.

The EU INTCEN and the EUMS Intelligence Directorate are the main clients of the European Union Satellite Centre, which provides satellite imagery and analysis.

References

European Union Intelligence and Situation Centre Wikipedia

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