Developing Assessment Criteria for Security and Intelligence Cooperation in the EU

Viktor Szép, Ester Sabatino & Ramses A. Wessel

This working paper proposes a set of assessment criteria for security and intelligence cooperation at the EU level and presents the limits that prevent more effective cooperation in this field.

The research team conducted interviews with experts and officials involved in this work, which lends the report rare insights into the area of security and intelligence cooperation.

The working paper first provides a summary of the current institutional architecture and presents an analysis of the main bodies involved in the provision of analysis, early warning and situational awareness at the EU level, like the Satellite Centre, or the Intelligence and Situation Centre and the EU Military Staff Intelligence Directorate working under the Single Intelligence Analysis Capacity.

Moreover, this paper discusses matters relating to the EU’s Area of Freedom, Security and Justice (AFSJ) and their relationship with external security.

Since cooperation in this field also occurs outside the EU institutional framework, it considers other relevant European frameworks on intelligence cooperation and cooperative agreements with non-EU actors.