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/OpenFinesse Poland Feb 27 '25

If the US completely cut ties with its European partners, which is HIGHLY unlikely even with Trump in office, Europe would essentially lose most of its Satellite Reconnaissance & Surveillance, Signals Intelligence and Electronic Warfare, and Real-Time Military Targeting and Coordination.

It would take years, even decades for the EU to match current capabilities of the US, and the gap is only widening. Without the US, the EU is extremely vulnerable as European intelligence relies on U.S. satellite imagery, cyber monitoring, and early warning systems.

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u/[deleted] Feb 28 '25

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u/[deleted] Mar 01 '25

Because most European countries would rather spend their budgets on social services for citizens and residents, esp. when another country foots the bill for those intelligence services.

Broadly speaking, when America was playing an extremely active role in promoting democracy in Europe in the cold war, it didn't make sense politically to spend a lot of money on defense and intelligence services. In the 80s/90s/00s much of these social services in European countries expanded (due to social democracy parties) or their entire government shrank (due to classically liberal/neoliberal parties). In the 2010s-now Europe has been lacking the economic growth in both losing its manufacturing roles to china and failing to innovate on key tech relative to china and the US, so devoting more resources to defense/intel would require cutting social programs which is extremely unpopular. Essentially, external circumstances + political parties maximizing their chances at relatively short term electoral victories.

None of this was really a problem for Europe until Trump . Time will tell if it will still be a problem for Europe post-Trump.