From the EUobserver: Now, the EU’s foreign relations chief, Catherine Ashton, is to get a situation room of her own. …

But she has already told EU leaders that she wants a "single crisis response centre" under her direct command and internal discussion on the Ashton situation room is at an advanced stage. …

One scenario under consideration is a crisis directorate run by a director general and situated close to Ms Ashton’s office in the EEAS headquarters, most likely in the so-called "Triangle" building facing the EU Council in the heart of the EU quarter in Brussels. It would have a staff of some 160 people and a modest budget of €10 to €20 million a year. …

Ms Ashton’s exclusive information would come from officials manning 24/7 hotlines to the EU’s 136 foreign delegations and 14 civilian and military missions. Another unit would send people to crisis zones at short notice on fact-finding trips. A cell of secret-service agents seconded from key EU states would pass Ms Ashton’s queries to spy agencies such as the UK’s MI6 or France’s DGSE and file replies.

The European Commission’s existing Crisis Room and the EU Council’s Joint Situation Centre (SitCen) are to form the backbone of the crisis directorate. SitCen already sends people into the field. When war broke out in Georgia in 2008 it dispatched two "analysts" to "re-inforce the EUSR [the EU special envoy to the South Caucasus] with reporting," a contact familiar with SitCen operations told this website.  (photo: White House)

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