The EU as an Atypical Intelligence Actor

Perspectives of Intelligence Cooperation in the Light of the EU Strategic Compass 2022

Abstract

The willingness for intelligence cooperation between EU Member States and the related policy and policy dialogue have flared up several times since the millennium. The focus on cooperation has typically emerged in line with fighting against terrorism over the last two decades in the European Union. However, despite the significant development in policy, as well as the further institutionalisation of EU security and defence policy, the need for common action was unable to break the boundaries of intelligence cooperation set by state interests and national sovereignty of Member States. Nevertheless, relevant changes in two main factors affecting European security might significantly influence the fate of EU intelligence cooperation, the EU’s potential, as an atypical intelligence actor seems to be reassessed and revalued. On the one hand the imminent military security threat for Member States caused by the war in Ukraine; on the other hand the birth of the EU’s first strategic document on defence, the EU Strategic Compass. Accordingly, the present study examines current perspectives on EU intelligence cooperation in the light of the two new determining factors.