An emergency meeting of European Union interior ministers this week included discussion of creating the European equivalent of the CIA following the Paris terror attacks.
The meeting in Brussels included talk of creating a new agency to try to close gaps that failed to stop the attacks.
New CIA Equivalent
“A European equivalent of the CIA could be founded to bring together 28 member states’ intelligence following the Paris attacks,” according to The Independent.
“Numerous failings have been identified since the massacres that killed 130 people a week ago today, driving calls from the European Commission for increased co-operation through a joint agency.”
The exact source of this discussion seems to be Guy Verhofstadt, the leader of the liberal ALDE group in the European Parliament.
Euractiv reported that he urged officials that he creation of a European intelligence agency, as well as a corps of European border and coast guards, is more urgent than ever with the terrorist threat growing.
“Cooperation between the EU’s intelligence services is a failure. After each tragedy, we realize that our cooperation doesn’t work,” he said.
“So we either have to make a mandatory system of exchange between national intelligence services, or create a European structure.”
The proposal is set to be examined at the last European Council of the year, in December. Right now Greece and Sweden are opposed to the idea.
“But these decisions have to be made. How many tragedies do we have to suffer before we make them?” Verhofstadt asked.
