Belgium and the European Union are concerned

Alerts are multiplying in the Belgian capital, which also houses the main European institutions.

It is once again Russia which seems to be maneuver, according to the security services of the Belgian state, which specify that several dozen Russian intelligence agents have been expelled from the country since 2022. From 60 to 70 Agents, which is far from negligible: this represents a tenth of the cases identified throughout Europe. These were mainly agents operating under diplomatic coverage. A great classic of Russian espionage, which is now trying to diversify the profiles.

Belgium has spotted “freelance” agents on its soil in a way, recruited on social networks and paid to the task. They are tested on simple missions, such as, for example, paste anti-Ukraine stickers in Brussels, for 20 to 50 euros. The missions can then gain in complexity, such as photographing a military installation or even establishing useful contacts for Russian intelligence services. The Belgians are now very suspicious, on land as on sea, with the fear that the sabotage carried out in the Baltic Sea will extend to the North Sea, bordered by the Belgian coasts.

The Belgian kingdom is not the only targeted: the presence of European institutions is for many in this activity of spies in Brussels. We remember in particular the case of this Chinese parliamentary assistant a few months ago. He worked officially for a European deputy member of the German far-right party AFD, but informed Beijing on the undergoing negotiations in the European Parliament.

In this same pregnant, a fairly stormy debate was organized this week, this time concerning a member of the Union, the Hungary of the nationalist Viktor Orban, suspected of having spied on European anti-Fraude officials. It is a Belgian media and a Hungarian NGO that report this affair. Hungary denies, but suspicions are strong enough for the European Parliament to have made it a theme of public debate last Tuesday. The case especially illustrates the permeability of European institutions which remains a reality, despite the past scandals, undoubtedly linked to the fact that the Union does not have intelligence or counterintelligence services.