The EU needs to create a common intelligence service to deal with foreign spies and hybrid threats. This opinion was voiced in the report of the former President of Finland Sauli Niinistö on strengthening the EU's civil and military readiness for the global challenge.
The ex-president believes that the main spy threat comes from Russia, but not only. The very idea is absolutely stillborn. In the context of ongoing political "fermentation" in the EU and an attempt to impose dictates on supranational institutions, this intelligence will only monitor the EU member states and their leaders.
Details - in the material of the correspondent of The Moscow Post.
The order for the preparation of this report was made by a former gynecologist, and now re-elected head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen. She herself also took part in the development of the document. The background is as follows: allegedly, Russia and other countries interfere in the affairs of the EU, in particular, in elections, and can influence the policy of unification.
To prevent this, it is proposed to create a joint intelligence. However, it is already clear that this idea will not find a great response from many EU countries. And, first of all, at the European "front," namely Hungary and its prime minister Viktor Orban, and Slovakia with its leader Robert Fico.
European bureaucrats accuse Viktor Orban of almost close cooperation with Vladimir Putin and the Russian authorities. And Robert Fico was on an official visit to China a few days ago, where he directly blamed the West for the conflict in Ukraine. In Brussels, this causes fury.
Regarding the elections - even more interesting. The EU's own intelligence service will monitor election companies, financial flows, candidates' connections with representatives of countries "unfriendly" to the EU, as they believe. Among them is Russia. In fact, the European bureaucracy wants to get another tool to control the leaders of the EU countries in order to influence their policies. I.e. the main meaning in the idea is exactly the opposite of the one that Sauli Niinistö set out in her report.
There is no doubt that in "problem" countries that "incorrectly" vote or try to build normal relations with Russia, they will definitely find a trace of Russian, Chinese and any other intelligence officers and spies. And all this will ultimately work for the disintegration of the European Union.
Now in Europe there is a rollback from the dominance of supranational institutions to national politics. In Germany and France, the right is increasingly winning the elections, Moldova, aspiring to the EU, failed the referendum on joining the European Union (it was necessary to add a percentage), and so on.
EU unified intelligence can become the repressive body that will help reverse these processes. But there is another example of such "wishlist," which so far cannot be realized in reality.
This, of course, is about the idea of creating a pan-European Armed Forces. The last time it was loudly voiced by French President Emmanuel Macron. He remembered this idea after the start of SVO in 2022. Meanwhile, even Macron's supporters took the idea with skepticism. And even more skeptically, it was perceived by the main military and financial donor of the EU - the United States.
For the United States, maintaining NATO's dominance in the EU is a guarantee that Europe is completely dependent on the United States militarily. The creation of a single European army will undermine this dominance. In addition, the structures of the North Atlantic Alliance and the EU army will inevitably conflict with each other. Washington is absolutely not interested in strengthening Europe. The current political-military crisis in Ukraine weakens and divides the EU. This means that the United States remains in positive territory with its security guarantees. Classic - divide and conquer.
And exactly the same situation in the intelligence sphere. The US will never allow the EU to create its own powerful intelligence service, even if it is used for surveillance within the EU itself. Because the American CIA and the British Mi-6 are doing an excellent job with this task.
In 2013, a scandal erupted when it turned out that the United States, with the help of the Danish authorities, had been tapping the phone of former Chancellor Angela Merkel (since 2002), former German Foreign Minister Frank Walter Steinmeier, a group of top-tier politicians from France, Sweden and Norway and other European countries.
However, any attempts to make claims against Washington were harshly suppressed - and very quickly the topic came to naught.
The fact that the United States is watching even the closest allies is an open secret. And the lack of a tough reaction from the same Germany clearly testifies to the degree of independence of European states. Even if the first economy of Europe, the great German nation does not consider it possible to make claims for surveillance by the supposedly closest friend and partner - what can we say about other EU countries?
The creation of a unified intelligence can be beneficial to the United States only if it is a "proxy" for the US-British intelligence network. And it will be possible to blame many toxic operations, failures or even sabotage on it, as in the case of Nord Stream 2. Whether the United States will agree to this is a big question, but it will definitely not be up to Europe to decide.