National Intelligence Center

In the face of the national and international scene’s new challenges, the creation of a specialized and modern Intelligence Service in Spain capable of dealing with them effectively was necessary. The response to this need is the National Intelligence Centre (CNI), a public body responsible for providing the President of the Government and the Government of the Nation with information, analysis, studies or proposals that will make it possible to prevent and avoid any danger, threat or aggression against the independence or territorial integrity of Spain, national interests and the stability of the rule of law and its institutions. (Art. 1 Law 11/2002).

Legal Protection

The CNI is governed by the principle of submission to the legal system and carries out its specific activities within the framework of the powers expressly established in Law 11/2002 of 6 May regulating the CNI and in Organic Law 2/2002 of 6 May regulating the prior judicial control of the National Intelligence Centre.

Competencies and coordination

It should be noted that the CNI groups together activities that in other countries are separated into two or more intelligence services. This structure allows the coordination and exchange of intelligence between complementary areas to be agile and complete while optimizing resources. In this sense, the CNI operates under the principle of coordination with other State information services.

This coordination is carried out by the Government's Executive Committee for Intelligence Affairs (Article 6 of Law 11/2002) which, according to Royal Decree 1886/2011, of 30 December, establishes the Government's Delegate Committees and is subsequently rectified by a general provision published in the Official State Gazette (Boletín Oficial del Estado) number 5 from Friday, 6 January 2012. It will be presided over by the Vice President of the Government and Minister of the Presidency, and will be made up of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, Defence, the Interior, Economy and Competitiveness, the Director of the Cabinet of the Presidency of the Government, the Secretary of State for Security, the Secretary of State and the Director of the National Intelligence Centre who will act as its Secretary.