History
In his speech on the future of Europe delivered on 27 September 2017 at the Sorbonne, the President of the French Republic, Emmanuel Macron, proposed the creation of a "European Intelligence Academy", which would serve as a crucible for the emergence of a common strategic culture. [2]
In particular, he states:
"What Europe lacks most today, this Europe of Defence, is a common strategic culture. [...] We do not have the same cultures, whether they be parliamentary, historical or political, nor do we have the same sensitivities. And we will not change that in a day. But I propose right now to try to build this culture together, by proposing a European initiative [...] aimed at developing this shared strategic culture. [...] I would therefore like to see the establishment of a European Intelligence Academy to strengthen the links between our countries through training and exchange activities." [2]
Emmanuel Macron will rename this initiative "Intelligence College in Europe" on the occasion of the inaugural event in Paris on 5 March 2019. This meeting brought together high-level representatives of sixty-six intelligence services from thirty European countries. The thirty countries were the 27 EU Member states as well as Norway, the United Kingdom and Switzerland.
In February 2020, twenty-three states met in Zagreb to sign the letter of intent, which formalises and perpetuates the existence of the Intelligence College in Europe, setting out a governance framework. These 23 states are Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.
Out of the 30 countries initially meeting in Paris on 5 March 2019, seven of them chose to have a partner status, which is less restrictive but still allows them to participate in certain activities: Bulgaria, Greece, Ireland, Luxembourg, Poland, Slovakia, and Switzerland. These countries may eventually become members of the College by signing the Letter of Intent. [3]
Since 2023, Bulgaria and Switzerland have joined the College as a full members.
The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe is one of the five regional commissions under the jurisdiction of the United Nations Economic and Social Council. It was established in order to promote economic cooperation and integration among its member states.
The Council of the Baltic Sea States (CBSS) is a regional intergovernmental organisation working on three priority areas:
The École nationale d'administration was a French grande école, created in 1945 by President Charles de Gaulle and principal author of the 1958 Constitution Michel Debré, to democratise access to the senior civil service. It was abolished on 31 December 2021 and replaced by the Institut national du service public (INSP).
Paris Club is a group of major creditor countries aiming to provide a sustainable way to tackle debt problems in debtor countries.
The European Higher Education Area (EHEA) was launched in March 2010, during the Budapest-Vienna Ministerial Conference, on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the Bologna Process.
The Community of Democracies (C.O.D), established in 2000, is an intergovernmental coalition of states. Its aim is to bring together governments, civil society and the private sector in the pursuit of the common goal of supporting democratic rules, expanding political participation, advancing and protecting democratic freedoms, and strengthening democratic norms and institutions around the world. The Warsaw Declaration had outlined the task of promoting democracy. It is disputed if the coalition qualifies as an International Organization in the legal sense.
The European Security and Defence College (ESDC) is an EU body embedded in the External Action Service (EEAS) of the European Union (EU) that provides training and education at EU level in the field of the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP), which is part of the EU's Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP). The ESDC has limited legal capacity.
The International Visegrad Fund is an international donor organization promoting development and closer cooperation among the Visegrad Group (V4) countries—the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia. The main aim of the fund is to strengthen the ties among peoples and institutions in Central and Eastern Europe through giving support to regional non-governmental initiatives. The fund is the only institutionalized form of regional cooperation among the Visegrad Group countries.
The Union for the Mediterranean is an intergovernmental organization of 43 member states from Europe and the Mediterranean Basin: the 27 EU member states and 16 Mediterranean partner countries from North Africa, Western Asia and Southern Europe. It was founded on 13 July 2008 at the Paris Summit for the Mediterranean, with an aim of reinforcing the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership (Euromed) that was set up in 1995 as the Barcelona Process. Its general secretariat is located in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.
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The Military Erasmus Programme, formally the European initiative for the exchange of young officers inspired by Erasmus, is an initiative undertaken by the European Union (EU) member states aimed at developing the exchanges between armed forces of future military officers as well as their teachers and instructors during their initial education and training. Due to the fact that the initiative is implemented by the Member States on a purely voluntary basis, their autonomy with regard to military training is not compromised.
The Platform of European Memory and Conscience is an educational project of the European Union bringing together government institutions and NGOs from EU countries active in research, documentation, awareness raising and education about the crimes of totalitarian regimes. Its membership includes 68 government agencies and NGOs from 15 EU member states and 8 non-EU countries including Ukraine, Albania, Georgia, Iceland, Moldova, the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada. Its members include the Institute of National Remembrance, the Berlin-Hohenschönhausen Memorial, the Stasi Records Agency and the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation. The platform has offices in Prague and Brussels (formerly). The President of the platform was Göran Lindblad (politician) (2012-2017), later Łukasz Kamiński, former President of the Polish Institute of National Remembrance (2017-2022). In the current term of office Marek Mutor serves the President of Platform.
The Republicans is a liberal-conservative political party in France, largely inspired by the tradition of Gaullism. The party was formed on 30 May 2015 as the re-incorporation of the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), which had been established in 2002 under the leadership of then President of France Jacques Chirac.
Audrey Azoulay is a French civil servant and politician who has served as the 11th Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) since 2017, becoming the second female leader of the organization. She previously served as France's Minister of Culture under Prime Ministers Manuel Valls and Bernard Cazeneuve from 2016 to 2017.
Mathieu Laine is a French entrepreneur and intellectual.
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The European Intervention Initiative (EI2) is a joint military project between 13 European countries outside of existing structures, such as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the European Union's (EU) defence arm. EI2 is planned to operate a "light" permanent secretariat based on the network of military liaison officers with the French defence ministry.
The Restitution of African Cultural Heritage. Toward a New Relational Ethics is a report written by Senegalese academic and writer Felwine Sarr and French art historian Bénédicte Savoy, first published online in November 2018 in a French original version and an authorised English translation.
The Conference on the Future of Europe was a proposal of the European Commission and the European Parliament, announced at the end of 2019, with the aim of looking at the medium- to long-term future of the EU and what reforms should be made to its policies and institutions. It is intended that the Conference should involve citizens, including a significant role for young people, civil society, and European institutions as equal partners and last for two years. It will be jointly organised by the European Parliament, the EU Council and the European Commission. On 19 April 2021, the multilingual digital platform of the Conference futureu.europa.eu was launched.
The Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence is an international initiative established to guide the responsible development and use of artificial intelligence (AI) in a manner that respects human rights and the shared democratic values of its members. The partnership was first proposed by Canada and France at the 2018 44th G7 summit, and officially launched in June 2020. GPAI is hosted by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
