EU plan to pool anti-terrorism intelligence

Europe's foreign affairs chief, Javier Solana, will take control of the EU's first intelligence services office if member states agree to give him an unprecedented role in combating external terrorism.

Under proposals from the union's Spanish presidency, Mr Solana could bring in staff from agencies such as Britain's MI6 to operate a clearing house for information on threats from foreign terrorists.

The details of ground-breaking plans to give the EU an intelligence arm to add to its fledgling defence capability were given by Spain's defence minister, Federico Trillo, in an interview with the Guardian.

"September 11 has shown that Europe as a union does not have a capacity to confront these sort of threats," Mr Trillo said. "European citizens expect their governments to give the union a capacity to defend itself against possible terrorist attacks from the exterior. Mr Solana is already doing preparatory work to add these activities to his functions."

Approval for EU intelligence and other counter-terrorism activities was likely when Tony Blair and fellow leaders met at the Seville summit in June, he said. Elements of the fight against international terrorism would then be added to the more strictly military objectives of EU security and defence policy, which falls within Mr Solana's remit.

Mr Solana, a former Nato secretary-general, answers to the EU council of ministers and is already served by a policy unit, military staff and a political and security committee staffed by ambassador-level officials.

Member states, especially large ones, have started to overcome their reluctance to share secrets with their EU partners, especially non-Nato ones, though they still keep the most highly classified material to themselves.

Mr Trillo said the reaction of states to Spain's proposals had been "positive". He added: "This does not weaken any country's intelligence capabilities. This is not a new intelligence service, nor a joint intelligence service. It is a question of coordinating the efforts of the different services relative to information on terrorism from the outside."

Mr Trillo, however, emphasised that the intelligence network would only be used against external threats, and not against groups such as the Basque armed separatist group Eta.

On Thursday, EU justice and interior ministers nearly doubled the budget of the Europol law enforcement agency in the Hague to fund anti-terrorist efforts and liaison with the US.

Mr Trillo said a second important part of the anti-terror remit proposed for Mr Solana would see plans to coordinate the reaction of Europe's military to biological, chemical or nuclear terrorist attacks on EU soil.

A third element would see a military element added to Europe's new "open skies" for air traffic - with air space being set aside for military aircraft.