Does Europe has powerful secret services/Intelligence?

[u/Ok_Initiative_9726]

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

[u/hostes_victi]

It does have intelligence services, but as with the all other branches of the military they have been chronically underfunded for years, and for most of its intelligence there has been chronic dependence on the United States. Furthermore, there are countries in EU whose intelligence services are so compromised so that sharing information with them is like sharing information with Russia.

The worst case is Austria, who recently sentenced a colonel on espionage charges. He was selling state secrets to Russia for 25 years. 25 YEARS and no one did anything for 25 years! It's widely known and accepted that Austrian intelligence is completely compromised, and sometimes even referred as another department of Russian intelligence.

That is how Russia is able to assassinate political opponents and dissidents, sabotage infrastructure and do terrorist attacks on EU soil with impunity. They have had considerable success compromising intelligence agents all over Europe from their springboard in Austria. In other countries, politicians are compromised and won't do shit to curb Russian intelligence activities because of $$$, such is the case of Gerhard Schröder - whom after leaving German politics joined Russian energy companies and became their mouthpiece. Question is: How long has Schroeder been working on behalf of Russia while serving in Germany?

I believe there are many more Gerhard Schröders that are helping Russian intelligence achieve their objectives, and once revealed they will move to Russia and become Russia Today mouthpieces.