Fostering Excellence in European Intelligence Practice and Collaboration

Across Europe, intelligence professionals are working under more pressure and scrutiny than ever before. Hybrid threats, disinformation, strategic corruption, organised crime, and state hostility are all evolving faster than the systems built to counter them. At the same time, democratic societies rightly demand that intelligence activity remains firmly anchored in law, ethics, and accountability.

The European Institute of Professional Intelligence Officers (EIPIO) is being established to help meet that challenge.

We are building an independent, practitioner-driven institute dedicated to excellence in intelligence practice across the European Economic Area. Our focus is simple: better standards, stronger ethics, and more meaningful collaboration between the people who produce, oversee, and depend on intelligence.

What “excellence” means for EIPIO

For us, excellence is not about mystique or heroics. It is about:

• Sound, transparent tradecraft

• Clear, honest analysis that can withstand political pressure

• Respect for human rights and democratic control

• Professional integrity, even when decisions are difficult

• The ability to learn, adapt, and criticise ourselves constructively

EIPIO aims to provide a professional home where those values are understood, shared, and continually refined.

A bridge across sectors and borders

Intelligence work in Europe is spread across many communities:

• Civilian and military intelligence services

• Law enforcement and criminal intelligence units

• Corporate security, competitive intelligence, and cyber threat teams

• EU and international institutions

• Researchers, educators, and civil society actors working on intelligence-adjacent issues

Too often, these communities operate in parallel, with limited opportunities for structured, high-trust dialogue. EIPIO is being designed as a bridge between them: a neutral, pan-European platform where practitioners can share experience, compare standards, and work together on common problems.

Our early priorities include:

• Developing and testing core standards for professional, ethical intelligence practice in democratic systems

• Creating simple, practitioner-friendly tools to help individuals and organisations self-assess against those standards

• Convening small, focused working groups and events that cut across institutional and national boundaries

Going “hands on”: try the EIPIO ethics self-check

To support that work, we are starting with something very practical: short, interactive tools that practitioners can use immediately in their own time.

One of the first of these is the Intelligence Ethics Self-Check (Core Principles) – a 30-question quiz and reflection tool built around legality, necessity and proportionality, human rights, professional integrity, and democratic accountability.

It is designed for all practitioners, whether you are:

• In a national intelligence or security service

• Working in law enforcement or criminal intelligence

• Operating in corporate intelligence, security, or risk roles

• Teaching or researching in a related field

The self-check is anonymous and stays in your browser session. It is not a test or certification; it is a prompt for honest reflection on how you think about ethics in everyday work.

You can access the self-check directly from the EIPIO website and share it with colleagues as a starting point for discussion inside your own organisation.

Building a community of practice

Over the next year, we will be gradually adding:

• Additional self-check tools (for analytic tradecraft, source handling, leadership, and more)

• Short guidance notes on standards and good practice

• Small online events and roundtables focused on ethics, professionalism, and democratic control

• Opportunities to contribute to working drafts of EIPIO’s standards and frameworks

We are deliberately starting small and careful. EIPIO is being built by practitioners who understand both the potential and the constraints of intelligence work in democratic societies. We want to move at a pace that keeps trust, quality, and independence at the centre.

How you can get involved now

Formal membership of EIPIO will open in stages from 2026. In the meantime, there are three simple ways you can be part of the early conversation:

1. Explore the tools. Try the Intelligence Ethics Self-Check and share it with trusted colleagues as a conversation starter.

2. Stay in touch. Follow EIPIO on LinkedIn and subscribe to updates from the website as we release new tools and events.

3. Signal your interest. If you or your organisation would like to contribute to shaping standards, training, or membership models, you can register your interest through our contact form.

EIPIO exists for the people who do the work. If you are one of them – in government, law enforcement, the corporate world, or academia – we would be glad to have you with us as we build something that belongs to the profession, not to any single state, service, or company.