By Hughes Beaudouin - 23rd March 2004
This week’s meeting in Madrid of Europe’s top intelligence bosses is nothing but “politicial posturing,” according to a senior French intelligence adviser.
Eric Denécé, head of the 'Centre français de recherche sur le renseignement' (CF2R) and a former agent in the French secret service, told EUpolitix.com that nothing decisive would emerge from the meeting, convened more to “reassure public opinion” than to come up with solutions to avert future terrorist attacks.
“Certainly, cooperation between services and sharing information must be improved, but you can’t expect efficient collaboration by getting everyone to work together,” explained Denécé.
According to the French expert, also a close advisor to the French authorities on intelligence issues, Europe’s secret services already cooperate more than their governments, but “at a very discreet level.”
“There’s a whole bunch of little deals struck here and there between the services, but the bigger you make these agreements the less efficient they become, a bit like Europe in fact.”
“The more people who have access to information, more you run the risk of leaks.”
On the ground, cooperation has progressed. “We have never worked together so closely. But it is all at a very informal level, and often on a bilateral basis, that’s what functions best.”
And he dismisses the whole idea of an EU ‘Terrorism Czar’ – due to be agreed by EU leaders this week - to coordinate Europe’s common policies against the terror risk.
“Without a service, without means, without a network, at the mercy of everyone’s sheer good will, he won’t be very useful.”
Distrust between certain intelligence services will also hold back cooperation, he underlined. “In the world of the secret service, there is a lot of distrust. It isn’t easy to cultivate a spirit of collaboration.”
The British services, for example, lack confidence in their German counterparts, who have been known to pass on highly sensitive information, said Denécé.
As such, the idea of some EU countries to create a kind of European CIA would be senseless, according to the Frenchman.
“Every secret service has its own network, and doesn’t want to share it with twenty-odd other countries. It [an EU-CIA] would be a bureaucratic, complex and pointless exercise.”
“The French services have been working since 1979 on arab terrorism, mostly because of the links with the Maghreb region. The Germans and Belgians are also up to speed on this question.”
“But the British, who have probably the best intelligence services in Europe, have unfortunately neglected islamist terrorism. Much as the US has. Close collaboration between the services and the police could go some way to help them shore-up this lacune.”
As for Spain and Italy, collaboration with their secret services has been very difficult. “These are two countries who have focused on national terrorism, like ETA and Italy’s Red Brigade, and have for a long time neglected terrorism or arabic origins. I think we can be sure that that will change now however,” he hoped.
Tr. D. Lumsden
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