Forthcoming Perspectives on European Politics and Society (special issue). 1 A European Transgovernmental Intelligence Network & The Role of IntCen Dr. Mai’a K. Davis Cross Senior Researcher ARENA Centre for European Studies maia.cross@arena.uio.no Introduction Given the progress the European Union (EU) has made in achieving more security cooperation, and even integration (Mitsilegas, Monar, and Rees 2003; Smith 2004; Jones 2007; Spence 2007; Mérand 2008; Kaunert 2011; Cross 2011), it is appropriate to ask whether this progress also extends to the field of intelligence, a notoriously guarded area of national sovereignty and security. To what extent is there a common intelligence space in the EU today, and why? The literature on EU intelligence focuses mainly on the normative (trust) or functional (efficiency) incentives member states need to push them toward intelligence cooperation on a particular issue (Müller-Wille 2004; Walsh 2006; Edwards and Meyer 2008). Recent empirical research seeks to establish that there is still a low level of political will among member states to cooperate, and a lack of desire to make use of the formal institutions set up to facilitate this. Member states tend to resist sharing intelligence with each other unless they are able to overcome the trust issues that go along with relinquishing sensitive data, and the inherent risks related to this, like putting human sources at risk. In looking at member-state motivations, most scholars have concluded that the current state of EU intelligence cooperation is quite dismal, with little hope of improving. I argue that an exclusive focus on member states misses the mark. There is an important shift underway in the European intelligence arena that is resulting in the creation of a transgovernmental intelligence network, which includes professionals from national intelligence services, as well as from formal and informal EU institutions. Transgovernmental cooperation is