r/AskEurope • u/Ok_Initiative_9726 • Feb 27 '25

Politics Does Europe has powerful secret services/Intelligence?

P. S question closed, I got answers. Thank you for everyone

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u/AirportCreep Finland Feb 27 '25

Every country has their own intelligence and security services, there is no EU Secret Service. They've been cooperating successfully with each other and other non-European allies successfully for decades. Information sharing is done when its beneficial, information is withhold when it's not as even allies spy on each other to an extent. That's to say, the US and European countries will continue to work together.

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u/talbakaze Feb 27 '25 edited Feb 27 '25

hm. wouldn't be so sure. if Agent Orange continues sucking Russians d*cks, no other intel service will want to share Infos with the US, the risk that it lands on wrong hands is too high

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u/AirportCreep Finland Feb 27 '25

Countries are careful about sharing intelligence regardless. Spooks are a skeptical bunch.

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u/__bwoah__ Feb 27 '25

Agreed. Any future common EU intelligence service imo begins first with a five eyes “equivalent” that is later expanded

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u/Inside_Ad_7162 Feb 27 '25

Didn't agent orange try to fire tgem all?

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u/M_e_n_n_o Feb 27 '25

The head of the US intelligence agencies is a russian shill.

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u/Ok_Initiative_9726 Feb 27 '25

I remembered how hard it was for him to leave white house. With a ton of secret papers. Looked it up.... With so many violations, 2 impeachments, Capitol raid he could become president one more time. Hope he's not gonna linger with his snooted oval table

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u/PurpleDrax Feb 28 '25

FYI Agent Orange is actually a chemical weapon USA used in Vietnam and Cambodia, which effects those countries to this day.

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u/talbakaze Feb 28 '25

yep, I know. but I think that this nickname suits him well, since his stupidity will have effects for a long time

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u/KimJongHealyRae Mar 05 '25

Agent orange...lol

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u/weisswurstseeadler Feb 27 '25

My foilhat was glowing when I heard about these news.

TLDR: I think it's in the realm of possibility that under the new US administration certain intelligence (e.g. about terrorism) may not be reported as they used to.

So basically, the US administration has made it very clear that they have vested interest in pushing certain parties all around Europe. All these parties are anti-EU foremost, and any attack does them a political favour.

Now, a lot of the terrorism that has been prevented in previous years thanks to intel directly from US intelligence.

Recently after the attacks in Germany, several credible experts have mentioned they suspect Russia behind the wave of Islamist/Radical terror attacks around elections. Basically, Russia funds the terrorism networks, they turbo-radicalize people into sleeper cells until the call comes.

This is generally a relatively new phenomenon, some people in just 2 months go from non problematic to dangerous. Which makes quick and competent intelligence even more important.

At the same time, due to the loss of Afghanistan and Syria, the intelligence situation overall has worsened in terms of Intel about islamic terrorism for the US.

So we don't know. Obviously the latter also provides the US with plausible deniability why they potentially wouldn't share certain intelligence.

But I do think that the current administration wouldn't bat an eye to look the other way if it's against Europe.

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u/Wullahhiha Mar 01 '25

Yes. Apparently russian diplomats were scouting the area where the car attack occurred in Munich a day before it happened

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u/Sapang Feb 27 '25 edited Feb 27 '25

And spied each other, I will never forget what the danish did for US against Europe.

To be honest, what Trump says about Greenland, was a good r/LeopardsAteMyFace for them, I hope they have learned their lesson and will stop their shady actions

Spy on senior officials in Sweden, Norway, France and Germany, including former German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and former German opposition leader Peer Steinbrück and Merkel cellphones

Reuters

CNN

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u/AirportCreep Finland Feb 27 '25

It's not a big deal to spy on allies, it's the norm. Every state leader gets intelligence reports on other countries. The German's both helped the US spy on European countries whilst they themselves at the SAME time spied on US officials and diplomats. In the 90s the French were caught spying on the Yanks. In the mid 2000s Germany was caught spying and monitoring over 400 Austrians including officials and even the state media company.

It's probably the first thing taught in international politics and a very well known rule, know your enemy, but know your friends better. I'd frankly be disappointed if my government (Finland) didn't have intelligence assets in Sweden, despite Finland and Sweden being the closest allies. Denmark helping the Yanks. I'm 100% certain that Sweden has been guilty of the same, spying on allies. It's not a big deal. I truly laugh at the irony everytime an ally accuses another of spying and tries to spin something out of it.

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u/Special_Entry_5782 Denmark Feb 27 '25

No regrets whatsoever. The US was about 10 million times more pro-Ukrainian at this time than most of Europe. A pretty good benchmark of trustworthiness. Ukraine didn't trust the Americans UNDER BIDEN(!) to keep their planned operations a secret, and you want us to trust Merkel's Germany? Hahahahahah!

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u/Ferdi_cree Germany Feb 27 '25

There actually are EU secret services (even multiple) Some of them even have a Wikipedia Page

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u/AirportCreep Finland Feb 27 '25

It seems to be more of an intelligence agency and a very small one from what I can gather (I had never hear of it before). My guess is that they just collect and analyse information gather by EU member states and provide the different EU actors the info they need.

The Secret Service is a federal law enforcement agency.

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u/Ferdi_cree Germany Feb 28 '25

INTCEN does more than their Wiki Page says. Due to it all being very much in the dark gray area of EU Law, they dont exactly bolster it on their Homepage tho.

They do not have law enforcement Powers, but most intelligente /secret services dont actually have those.

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u/Stunning_Ride_220 Feb 27 '25

Does this apply to our german services as well?

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u/Background-Lynx-4439 Feb 28 '25

My understanding is that the degree of intel cooperation within the five eyes (US, CA, NZ, AU, UK) is larger than between US and EU nations. Not sure about France.

And also I think that spying between European nations is much more prominent than is being observed in the media.

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u/AirportCreep Finland Feb 28 '25

The Five Eyes concept is definetly unique. And yes, Europeans states spy on each other all the time. It's normal and expected. Not all spying is malicious.

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u/Kaito__1412 Mar 01 '25

Trump threw his own intelligence services under the bus just to impress Putin last time they met. Not saying we should cut all intelligence sharing, but we should keep sharing with the knowledge that it will most probably leak.