EU Intelligence and Situation Centre (EU INTCEN)
| Agency overview | |
|---|---|
| Formed | March 18, 2012 |
| Preceding agency |
|
| Type | Directorate in the EEAS |
| Headquarters |
EEAS building 1046 Brussels, Belgium 50°50′33″N 4°23′8″E / 50.84250°N 4.38556°E |
| Employees | 70 |
| Agency executive |
|
| Parent agency | EEAS |
| Key document | |
The EU Intelligence and Situation Centre (EU INTCEN) is an intelligence body of the External Action Service (EEAS) of the European Union (EU) under the authority of the EU's High Representative.
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.
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:
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).
Since January 2011, the EU INTCEN is part of the European External Action Service (EEAS) under the authority of the EU's High Representative.
...
Wikipedia