The EU Intelligence Community: Elements of a EU intelligence Culture

Abstract

The EUGS 2016 introduced new challenges and set specific head goals for the policy of the European Union in the fields of external action and security. Such decisions must be implemented and backed by valid intelligence support. The EU intelligence community, that according to this paper is composed by mainly four agencies (EU IntCen, EU IntDiv, SatCen and Europol), represents the backbone for the information and policy making support of the EU governance. In this paper it will be analysed the development of the EU intelligence community in order to prove the existence of a EU intelligence culture, and eventually, the five main elements that emerged in the research, by using the literature on the US intelligence community and its culture as comparation subject. The five main elements taken into account to define the EU intelligence culture and represent the foundation upon which it will be built any future development of the EU intelligence community, that will pass from a European intelligence community to a European Union integrated intelligence system. In a world in constant change in which the EU has to find its own place, the development of its intelligence becomes crucial, to understand and respond to the different types of threats.