Kallas and von der Leyen clash over EU intelligence power in Brussels

A quiet power struggle is brewing in Brussels between Kaja Kallas' diplomatic service and Ursula von der Leyen's European Commission over control of EU intelligence. At the centre of the dispute is INTCEN, the EU's little-known intelligence-analysis hub housed within the European External Action Service. The rivalry reflects broader tensions over who should handle sensitive security information at the EU level.

Brussels expands its intelligence role

The European Union is quietly but significantly expanding its intelligence capabilities, and with that expansion comes a contest for institutional power in Brussels. At the heart of the debate is INTCEN — the EU's intelligence-analysis centre embedded within the European External Action Service (EEAS) — an organisation that has long operated in the shadows but is now attracting increasing attention from the bloc's top officials.

The growing profile of INTCEN has triggered a turf war between two of the EU's most powerful figures: Kaja Kallas, the EU's foreign policy chief and head of the EEAS, and Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission. Both sides are manoeuvring to assert influence over how sensitive intelligence is gathered, analysed, and shared across EU institutions.

The EEAS versus the Commission

For Kallas, who took on the EU's top diplomatic role after serving as Estonia's Prime Minister, the EEAS represents the natural home for European intelligence coordination. The service was specifically designed to give the EU a unified foreign and security policy voice, and INTCEN sits squarely within its remit. Kallas and her team are said to be protective of that mandate.

Von der Leyen's Commission, however, has been expanding its footprint across a range of policy areas traditionally considered outside its scope, including defence and security. As the EU takes a more assertive stance on security matters — driven partly by the ongoing war in Ukraine and shifting geopolitical pressures — the Commission has argued it needs greater access to and oversight of intelligence products to fulfil its responsibilities.

Wider implications for EU security

The internal rivalry is more than a bureaucratic squabble. It reflects a fundamental unresolved question within the EU: who ultimately speaks and acts on European security? The answer has significant consequences for how effectively the bloc can respond to external threats, including from Russia. Observers note that unless the institutional boundaries are clarified, the competition between the EEAS and the Commission risks undermining the very intelligence capabilities Brussels is trying to build.