Terrorism, Intelligence sharing and Cooperation in the European Union 2016 Abstract The context in which this paper is written relates to an international threat which in the recent years grew in amplitude and received more and more attention from the political elites, namely the concept of terrorism. This paper puts the concept in the territory of the European Union likewise establishing the boundaries of the research. In completion of the context, the internal security dimension of the European Union will be focused on along with terrorism, which will be referred throughout the paper, while other threats such as cross-border crime will be briefly mentioned. The phenomenon of terrorist attacks grew in density within the European Union in the last two years. Thus, the objective of this paper is to identify some of the gaps in the internal security of the Union which cumbersome the implementation of countering measures. In doing so, the research will start from the premise that more focus should be given to information sharing and cooperation between national security services of the member states and the Union’s security related agencies (e.g. Europol, INTCEN) in order to manage the internal security and tackle terrorism. The base of the latter is rooted in official documents or pieces of communication released by European Union bodies, such as The European Agenda on Security or The Renewed European Union Internal Security Strategy 2015-2020. Then, to contrast, the paper will also bring into discussion an alternative for managing the information flow and internal security by presenting and analyzing some of the proposals for a supranational security body, a European secret service. This idea is rooted in a few statements given by figures part of Union’s political elite. All the above have to be viewed in the bigger picture of a healthy European security environment with the main task of tackling terrorism. For accomplishing a thorough research various academic sources were used but also first-hand data released by EU bodies. After building the theoretical framework the analysis will make use of two theories of European integration, namely Intergovernmentalism and Neo-functionalism in trying to answer the problem statement. One result of the analysis identified as main issue for the current level of information sharing and cooperation the element of trust between the actors involved. As for the alternative of having a European secret service, based on the proposals analyzed the paper managed to build a criteria pattern revealing an ideal form of the service. 1 Terrorism, Intelligence sharing and Cooperation in the European Union 2016 In conclusion the findings of this research embody firstly an assumption or a hypothesis revealing that the level of information sharing and cooperation is influenced by trust relationships between the actors and by the element of national sovereignty. Secondly, the criteria pattern emerged can be used as an assessment tool to determine how realistic the idea of a European secret service is. By pointing out to the attributes and capabilities of such an organization, whoever might initiate such a project can realise which capabilities are achievable at the given time and which not, likewise influencing if the establishing is possible or not. 2 Terrorism, Intelligence sharing and Cooperation in the European Union 2016 Table of Contents Abstract ................................................................................................................................................. 1 Introduction ........................................................................................................ 5 Problem formulation ............................................................................................................................. 6 Methodological considerations ........................................................................... 7 Ontology-Epistemology ......................................................................................................................... 7 Research design, strategy and data ...................................................................................................... 7 Choice of theory .................................................................................................................................... 9 Limitations........................................................................................................................................... 11 Theory and theoretical framework ................................................................... 12 Intergovernmentalism ........................................................................................................................ 12 Neo-functionalism ............................................................................................................................... 17 What is Terrorism and Counter-terrorism? ........................................................................................ 21 Historical considerations on cooperation in the European Union ......................................................... 27 Building the political framework for cooperation, integration and security ...................................... 27 Establishing the European Union ........................................................................................................ 29 Creation of the Area of Freedom Security and Justice (AFSJ) ............................................................. 32 Developing the EU Counter-Terrorism legal framework ........................................................................ 35 The Lisbon Treaty ................................................................................................................................ 35 European Council’s Programmes – directions for cooperation 1999-2014 ........................................ 36 Developments in the field of police and judicial cooperation ............................................................ 37 Catalyst events and initiatives ............................................................................................................ 40 European bodies tasked with security matters ...................................................................................... 46 The Trevi Group - TREVI ...................................................................................................................... 46 The European Police Office - Europol ................................................................................................. 47 Eurojust ............................................................................................................................................... 49 The EU Intelligence Analysis Centre – INTCEN (former SITCEN) ......................................................... 50 COSI – Standing Committee on Operational Cooperation on Internal Security ................................. 52 Club de Berne – operating outside EU legal framework ..................................................................... 54 How does the fight against terrorism looking in the recent past? Summary and conclusions .......... 55 Information, intelligence sharing and cooperation ................................................................................ 59 So what is Intelligence? ....................................................................................................................... 59 3 Terrorism, Intelligence sharing and Cooperation in the European Union 2016 What is intelligence liaison then? ....................................................................................................... 61 Witnessing the globalization of intelligence ....................................................................................... 62 Categorizing functions, sources and levels of the intelligence field ................................................... 64 Analysis ............................................................................................................ 69 Part I - What is the current state of EU intelligence sharing and cooperation? ..................................... 69 Other arguments for poor information sharing and cooperation ...................................................... 73 Part II - Alternatives to manage EU’s internal security? ......................................................................... 76 A historical incentive – The European Bureau of Investigation .......................................................... 77 A European Secret Service - Analysis .................................................................................................. 78 The attacks in Europe – an old idea but a different context .............................................................. 80 Conclusions ....................................................................................................... 83 Bibliography ..................................................................................................... 86 Academic literature – Books and scholarly articles/journals .............................................................. 86 Online sources and official documents ............................................................................................... 88 Abbreviations ..................................................................................................... 93 Annexes ...........................................................................................................