EU Spy School Unlikely To Lead To Creation Of Joint Intelligence Service - Lawmaker

EU Spy School Unlikely to Lead to Creation of Joint Intelligence Service - Lawmaker

A joint European spy school may be useful in terms of exchanging information on various practices but will not lead to the creation of a unified EU intelligence service due to the sensitive information member states may want to withhold, Jean-Luc Schaffhauser

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 22nd November, 2018) A joint European spy school may be useful in terms of exchanging information on various practices but will not lead to the creation of a unified EU intelligence service due to the sensitive information member states may want to withhold, Jean-Luc Schaffhauser, a member of the European Parliament's Subcommittee on Security and Defense, told Sputnik on Thursday.

On Monday, the defense ministers of the EU member states adopted a plan providing for the creation of a Joint EU Intelligence School (JEIS), which would provide education and training for the bloc's intelligence personnel.

"A European intelligence school is conceivable as a means by which national intelligence services can learn best practices from one another. But there can never be an integrated [EU] intelligence service because of certain national secrets," Schaffhauser from France's Rassemblement bleu Marine (Marine Blue Gathering) alliance said.

Although some states may want to share their intelligence in specific cases, there "can never be an integrated European intelligence service" if EU states want to retain their independence, Schaffhauser added.

"In the domain of military technology, France can never agree to pool her resources with other states. European initiatives in this area can take place only under national leadership, maybe with outsourcing to other countries but always under national control," Schaffhauser stressed.

The joint spy school is one of the EU's Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) projects aimed at encouraging closer defense cooperation among member states.