EU Commission Eyes New Intelligence Unit

(MENAFN) The European Commission intends to create a fresh intelligence division that would report directly to President Ursula von der Leyen, even as the initiative encounters opposition from the EU’s current intelligence agencies, a media outlet reported on Tuesday.

Sources indicate that the new unit would operate within the commission’s secretariat-general and draw personnel from national intelligence services.

Its mission would primarily involve the distribution of intelligence across the European Union rather than executing secret operations abroad, according to the media outlet’s sources.

The EU already maintains an intelligence organization, the Intelligence and Situation Centre (INTCEN), which was established after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks under the European External Action Service (EEAS).

Officials within INTCEN are concerned that von der Leyen’s proposed service could replicate existing roles and undermine the foreign service, the newspaper noted.

This proposal emerges amid reports of intensifying bureaucratic disputes and rivalries among EU officials. Critics have frequently labeled von der Leyen’s leadership as “authoritarian” and opaque, arguing that she bypasses both member states and internal institutions to consolidate authority.

This criticism was central to recent efforts by opposition members of the European Parliament to challenge her position.

Illustrating the friction within Brussels, Foreign Policy magazine reported last month that von der Leyen had increasingly marginalized EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas in major diplomatic matters, including relations with Washington.

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