Brussels 12.11.2025 The European Commission has initiated the launch of a new intelligence structure under the leadership of Ursula von der Leyen (pictured). The leak, reported by the Financial Times*, has already been confirmed by the EU: the plan exists, but it is “still at an embryonic stage.”

NEW – EU to set up new "intelligence unit" under Ursula. pic.twitter.com/KsV2UHcXzP

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The purpuse of the new sturcture it is to enhance the sharing and use of information collected by national intelligence services, creatating a pan-European database, which will solidify the centralisation of power in von der Leyen’s hands, removing it the External Action Service (EEAS).

According to the newspaper, the move would be opposed by senior officials of the EEAS. Nowadays the Intelligence Centre—the INTCEN—already exists, placed under the direct authority of the High Representative, the incumbent Estonian Kaja Kallas. This new von der Leyen initiative has reportedly not yet been formally communicated to all 27 member states, so far reluctant to invest in integrating their own intel agencies. Two sources admitted to the Financial Times that European chancelleries are likely to oppose the project.

“We are in the initial phase,” confirmed today Balazs Ujvari, spokesperson for the European Commission, explaining that “the creation of a dedicated cell within the Secretariat General is being considered,” which “will complement the work of the Commission’s Security Directorate and will work closely with the respective services of the European External Action Service.”

A few more indications were given by Paula Pinho, chief spokesperson for the executive: the unit “will be quite small,” she said, the number of people who will be part of it “is more likely to be counted on one hand than two or three,” and it aims to “strengthen the structures that already exist” in the EEAS.

The sharing of intelligence information is an extremely sensitive topic for member states.

“The intelligence services of the EU member states know a lot. The Commission knows a lot. We need a better way to put all this information together and be effective and useful to our partners. In the intelligence field, to get something, you have to give something back,” a source told the FT newspaper.

At the same time, since Josep Borrell left the leadership of the EEAS to Kaja Kallas, von der Leyen has gradually moved away various competences from the head of EU diplomacy, who is responsible together with the member states for the Union’s foreign policy. Von der Leyen appointed a Commissioner for Defence within her college and created a Directorate General for the Mediterranean, ranging as far as the Persian Gulf, at the head of which she put Stefano Sannino, former Secretary General of the European External Action Service.

Moving the intel service under the Berlaymont unmbrella would be a further step toward fortifying von der Leyen’s “war cabinet.” The unelected head of the European Commission in command. A dangrious move for the European democracties. Usually, the intelligence services focus on gathering and analyzing information, often internationally, to inform national security policy, but in this case the information will be consolidated in one hands, in the hands of an unelected EU bureaucrat, who even doesn’t bother to report to the European parliament, always leaving her deputies instead.

*Based in London, the Financial Times is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nikkei, with core editorial offices across Britain, the United States and continental Europe.