Paris, 4 June: The WEU Assembly on Tuesday advocated the establishment of a “European Intelligence Agency”, to go some way towards remedying the “the total absence of joint intelligence gathering at EU and WEU level”. 
 
On the basis of a report submitted on behalf of the Defence Committee by Mr Georges Lemoine (France, Soc.) the Assembly would like to see a proper reliable and effective “Intelligence Europe” progressively set up, starting with “measures that can be achieved in the short term”. The Assembly therefore advocates organising regular thematic meetings of the chiefs of intelligence services to help strengthen European cooperation and investing in an increasing share of national defence budgets on intelligence gathering systems.  It also wants “to develop the military capabilities of the Torrejón European imagery centre” and transform it in future into “a real European Defence Imagery Office”. 
 
In his report, Mr Lemoine notes “exchanges of intelligence between national intelligence services” as “still the most common practice” with “some joint work going on between European nations, at the level of satellite programmes or UAVs, most frequently in the context of agreements on programmes involving two or three countries”. It was noticeable, he added, that there was a “total absence of joint intelligence gathering”. 
 
The Rapporteur felt that the recent establishment, under Mr Solana (EU/WEU Secretary-General and CFSP High Representative) of the Situation Centre (SITCEN) and EU Military Staff (EUMS) and “a well-organised intelligence section” constituted “substantial progress”, provided that the member states had the political will to provide them with reliable intelligence at times of crisis”.