http://www.telegrap h.co.uk/news/ worldnews/ europe/2512219/ New-European- spying-proposals -threaten- British-security .html
New European spying proposals 'threaten British security'
MI5 and MI6 could be forced to share their intelligence with the rest of Europe
under new proposals from the EU.
By Bruno Waterfield in Brussels and Duncan Gardham, Security Correspondent
Last Updated: 11:20PM BST 06 Aug 2008

Under the plans, seen by the Daily Telegraph, all countries would feed secret
information into a central intelligence unit so that any member state can use
it.

But the proposals risk hard won intelligence gathered by British agents being
leaked by less scrupulous security services, particularly in the former
Communist states of Eastern Europe.

Although the Government has contributed to the proposals being drawn up,
Britain's security services are likely to put up stiff opposition to the plans.

Historically British intelligence officers have enjoyed a good relationship with
their US counterparts, regularly exchanging information particularly in the
fight against terrorism.

However, there has been a degree of mistrust between the British authorities and
European security agencies. In the 1990s the French intelligence service was
blamed for leaking information shared by MI6 to the Serbian military.

One senior security source told the Daily Telegraph: "We have well-worked
principles about how we share information using bi-lateral relationships built
up over many years.

"We share information whenever we need to do so and while the idea of dumping
everything in a big pool may have a superficial attraction, we would want to
know that everyone was contributing equally and the information shared was
properly protected."

The document from the EU Future Group is expected to form the basis of
legislation next year and calls on countries to abandon the "principle of
confidentiality" which has governed the sharing of intelligence for decades.

The proposals stop short of calling for a European spy agency but say there is a
need for "increased synergies between police and security intelligence
services."

It suggests a network of "anti-terrorist centres" in each country co-ordinated
by SitCen, the European Union's intelligence assessment centre in Brussels.

Other proposals suggest standardising police surveillance techniques and
extending the sharing of DNA and fingerprint databases to include CCTV video
footage and material gathered by "spy drones".

The plans are based on the idea that the EU can do better than national
governments with the report adding: "It appears that this sector cannot be
managed politically by individual member states."

It is also suggests that the European Gendarmerie Force (EGF), which currently
only involves France, Italy, Spain, Portugal and the Netherlands, should become
an EU body.

The proposal will step up pressure on the UK to allow the deployment of armed
foreign police officers in Britain during "crisis" situations, including public
order disturbances at international summits.

Other proposals include the formation of a paramilitary police force which can
be deployed by a Brussels "mission command" in international hotspots outside
the EU's borders.

The confidential 53-page document, called European Home Affairs in an Open
World, sets out plans for an EU programme of security measures from 2010 to
2014.

It has been drafted by a top-level group consisting of justice ministers from
Germany, Portugal, Slovenia, France, the Czech Republic and Sweden as well as
the European Commission.

The plans have alarmed both the Conservatives and civil libertarians as both an
erosion of national sovereignty and a threat to freedom.

Dominic Grieve, the Shadow Home Secretary, said: "This report reveals the
enormous scope of Brussels' ambitions for EU control over vital areas of
national security policy. While practical co-operation between EU partners is
important - the Government must resolutely resist any attempt to fetter British
control over this important policy area."

Government sources said they were still considering the proposals but were keen
to see greater co-operation in gathering intelligence at European borders.

A Home Office spokesman said: "The UK has followed the workings of the Future
Group and has fed in where possible.

"The report contains some useful ideas regarding how EU countries can cooperate
on global issues such as combating terrorism."

http://www.telegrap h.co.uk/news/ worldnews/ europe/2513334/ British-agencies -fear-one- way-flow- of-information. html
British agencies fear one-way flow of information
Britain's intelligence and security services are preparing to oppose European
Union plans to force them to share the information they gather.
By Duncan Gardham
Last Updated: 11:46PM BST 06 Aug 2008

The proposals would force MI5 and MI6 to hand over intelligence to be managed by
a European intelligence assessment centre.

The EU Joint Situation Centre, known as SitCen, is based in Brussels from where
it assesses terrorism, arms proliferation and crisis regions as well as
providing crisis management for EU operations.

But the idea of handing over intelligence to Brussels with the prospect of
little in return and the risk of compromising sources has sent shivers through
the security services.

"Information is the business we are in and we have very well-developed practices
for sharing it around the world," a senior security source said yesterday. "This
may sound good on paper but if we share information we want to know it is shared
for a purpose and that everyone is contributing.

"It has to be used with a sense of responsibility and we want to know where we
are sending it and who is protecting it. If our sources are compromised it makes
gathering intelligence so much harder and we have a duty to protect information
that is passed to us."

Paul Cornish, an expert in international security at the Chatham House
think-tank, said: "The difficulty with the EU is that it is a complex
organisation and there are risks in sharing information with countries like
Bulgaria or Hungary that it will end up in other hands."

Efforts to share intelligence within the EU have always fallen at the first
hurdle. It has only been in recent years that Nato members have begun to
establish a level of trust. Even then, the loss of information about Nato
bombing targets during the Kosovo campaign of the 1990s, blamed on
middle-ranking French officers, emphasised the dangers.

Some European nations envy the level of information exchange and mutual respect
that Britain enjoys with the United States. After the Glasgow bombings last
year, Ronald K Noble, the secretary general of Interpol, criticised the lack of
information sharing.

A Scotland Yard counter-terrorism source said: "We share information across the
world but we have particularly strong ties with the US."

It is unlikely that the security services would want to jeopardise that close
working relationship.

"Many EU countries have immature and underdeveloped intelligence networks," said
Mr Cornish. "It is inconceivable that we would share information with
organisations that may be flaky.

"The US and the UK have a special relationship that involved a close sharing of
information and no one else has anything like that, partly because it is only
the US and to a lesser extent the UK that have intelligence gathering operations
with a global reach.

"We are not going to get anything out of giving this information to other
countries and we are not going to share the crown jewels if we do not get
anything back."

There are already procedures among police forces across Europe to alert them to
a potential terrorist threat but the sharing of intelligence agency information
is much more sensitive.

While the French and German intelligence services are very strong they do not
operate on a level compared to MI5, MI6, the FBI or the CIA and some members of
the EU have been hoping that they can use SitCen to collect information they
would not otherwise receive.