“You may think you know what you’re dealing with, but believe me, you don’t,” John Huston’s character warns a detective played by Jack Nicholson in the 1974 classic “Chinatown”.
That’s sage advice for Europe’s own Chinatown, commonly known as Brussels.
The truth is we don’t know the degree to which the Chinese have infiltrated Brussels’ European institutions, but recent developments – this month’s arrest of a Belgian policeman on suspicions he was a Chinese asset, and the recent sentencing of a former European Parliament staffer in Germany to nearly five years in prison for spying for Beijing– signal we don’t know the half of it.
The revelation late Thursday by Euractiv’s Chattering Classes newsletter that European authorities have been investigating whether a former reporter for Politico in Brussels was also on China’s spy payroll illustrates a more fundamental problem: By the time European counterintelligence gets wind of such activity, it’s often too late.
As ever, the answer to this dilemma is more resources. The EU institutions have virtually no counterintelligence capabilities and depend on national capitals, which themselves continue to rely heavily on intelligence sharing with the US and UK.
This isn’t an easy problem to fix; but given the scale of the Chinese threat and the stakes at play, it must be.
The week that was
We’re a bit biased, of course, but the past week was by our estimation one of the strongest in Euractiv’s recent history, full of important scoops and sharp analysis.
Here are some highlights:
The EU’s pivot to Japan. Over several months, our reporters noticed that a parade of senior Commission were heading to Japan. Sensing that these trips weren’t only driven by a desire to sample real matcha, two of our journalists – Chris Powers and Thomas Moller Nielsen – decided to do some digging.
What they found is that Brussels is seeking to learn from Tokyo how to de-risk from China, and how to counter Beijing’s chokehold over the world’s supply of strategically crucial rare earths. It’s a fascinating piece, well worth your time.
Tokyo drift: Why the EU is going all-in on Japan
Torrents of European tourists have flocked to Japan lately to take selfies in front of…
6 minutes
The EU Council’s housing crisis. The Council is considering a €1.1 billion redo of its old headquarters, according to documents uncovered by our Nicoletta Ionta.
Governments are preparing a major overhaul of the Council of the EU’s Justus Lipsius headquarters, where European diplomats hold thousands of meetings a year negotiating new laws, according to the documents.
EXCLUSIVE: EU plans €1 billion Council rebuild
The EU is considering spending €1.1 billion to renovate one of its main power centres…
3 minutes
Parliament takes on Belgium. One of the peculiarities of the European Union is that when there are suspicions of criminal activity in its ranks, it generally falls to Belgium to investigate.
Yet as our colleague Elisa Braun reported in this exclusive investigation this week, the collaboration between Parliament and the Belgian judiciary is less than harmonious. Elisa’s piece raises a basic, yet essential question: Who should police the EU?
INVESTIGATION: European Parliament tells Belgian prosecutor to stay in lane on corruption probes
Three years after the Qatargate scandal shook the EU to its core, the European Parliament…
6 minutes
Norway’s Israel issues. Every wonder why Norway, of all places, is so obsessed with Israel?
Turns out the recent dust-up over Gaza is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg.
Our resident Norwegian Jacob Wulff Wold explains in this fascinating dispatch that the two countries used to be close – and then Arafat came to town…
Nordic noir: How Norway went from Israel’s friend to its foe
OSLO – Norway’s long and complicated entanglement with Middle East diplomacy resurfaced in recent days –…
7 minutes
The elusive ‘reparation loan’. When it comes to Ukraine, everyone is looking for a silver bullet – Tomahawks, Taurus, and a pot of €140 billion in Russian central bank reserves sitting in Belgium would fall into this category.
As ever, putting these plans into motion is more fraught than it would first appear.
The so-called reparation loan, for all its appeal, might be the thorniest plan of all, as Thomas Moller Nielsen wrote this week in this must-read explainer.
Why the EU debate over Ukraine’s ‘reparation loan’ has only just begun
EU leaders meeting on Thursday are expected to ask the European Commission to draw up…
5 minutes
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