With the United States suiciding itself back into the stone age, the EU is not idly waiting for someone else to depend on, such as NATO. It would leave them too exposed to China and Russia. A European Army is slowly being born (Additional sources: Here and here) while the EU itself continues to force itself through economic and social means into the United States of Europe. Its very own intelligence apparatus is only part of the overall objective.
In the end, all roads lead to Berlin which controls and runs the EU via economic might and heavily wielding influence through such organizations as “The Troika” that subjugates other nations (i.e. Greece and Cyprus) and turns them into German vassal states. The Fourth Reich is here.
In any case, the EU does and always has known that the NSA has been spying on them — as well as having been a source of their own intelligence. Germany in fact has been collaborating with the NSA since the 1960’s. Germany itself cannot spy legally on their own citizens in such a manner as the NSA, thus needs the outside source which is out of legal jurisdiction and cannot be held accountable. This is only a politically driven tactic to slowly push the US out of its backyard and for the EU to stand out on its own as a world superpower.
The European Union (EU) is planning to assemble an independent intelligence body of its own in “an urgent response” to the recent revelation that the US has been spying on EU officials as well as European citizens.
The planned apparatus, which will be set up by owning and operating spy drones, surveillance satellites and espionage aircraft by the EU itself, will be used for “internal security and defence purposes,” the Telegraph reported, citing “officials.”
…“Maintaining and developing defense capabilities to meet current and future challenges in spite of severe budget constraints will only be possible if far-reaching political and structural reforms are made. The time has come to take ambitious action,” the Commission’s report said.
One of the actions suggested in the report is funding a pre-commercial procurement scheme to acquire prototypes of some technologies – including drones.
The full list of technology candidates includes equipment to detect chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and explosives threats (CBRNE), “communication equipment based on software defined radio technology,” and remotely-piloted aircraft systems (RPAS), otherwise known as drones.
According to European Union sources, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, the European Commission and France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Poland all are in favor of the plans.
Meanwhile, Geoffrey Van Orden, a European parliamentarian, accused the European Commission of being “obsessed” with promoting the “EU’s military ambitions.”
“It would be alarming if the EU – opaque, unaccountable, bureaucratic and desperately trying to turn itself into a federal state – were to try and create an intelligence gathering capability of its own. This is something that we need to stop in its tracks before it is too late,” said Van Orden.
However, plans to create the EU’s own security and spying agency and employ spy drones and satellites for “internal and external security policies” – which would reportedly include police intelligence, internet surveillance, protection of external borders, and maritime overwatch – will likely raise concerns that the EU is creating its own version of the NSA.
Full article: EU plans independent intelligence agency as response to US (Voice of Russia)
Global Geopolitics 