For centuries the city of Brussels has provided a refuge for people fleeing persecution. Often these are individuals that foreign powers have wanted to keep tabs on. Today Brussels is an international centre. Many European and international organisations are based here and it has become a hub of activity for diplomats from the four corners of the world, but where there is power, influence and intelligence there is also espionage. Since the start of the Cold War in the Fifties spies and intelligence workers of all nationalities have been attracted to the Belgian and Flemish capital and it is no different today. Today Brussels boasts some 175 diplomatic missions, but do we know how many spies are based here?
Foreign News
How many spies are there in Brussels?
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Nearly 150 international bodies are based here. They have amassed a wealth of information and it will surprise nobody that many powers have dispatched spies to Brussels in an attempt to harvest intelligence. In 1966 the French president, General De Gaulle pulled his country out of NATO’s military structure and a year later NATO headquarters moved to Brussels. Civilian and military staff upped sticks in Paris, but they were not the only ones. Many were the spies too who swapped the delights of Paris for the more modest entertainment of the Belgian capital.
According to Brussels media outlet Bruzz the notorious East German intelligence service, the Stasi, had 134 operatives in the Belgian capital. At this time Germany was still divided as a consequence of the Second World War and East Germany functioned as a client state of the Soviet Union. Moscow’s intelligence service boasted 45 officers based in Brussels, while Czechosovakia, another Soviet client state and still one single country at this time, had seven intelligence agents in post in Brussels.
Was the future mayor a target?
Belgian officials were clearly also the target of foreign secret services. It’s believed the Czechoslovaks even attempted to recruit Freddy Thielemans. He was destined to go on to become burgomaster of the City of Brussels, but at that time he served as chief of staff to Hervé Brouhon, the then mayor. According to Bruzz between 1986 and 1988 several meetings occurred, but by 1988 the Czechoslovaks, who were very proficient at spying, concluded that Mr Thielemans didn’t possess the skills to bring such an enterprise to a good end.
Guy Binet was altogether in a different league. This colonel in the Belgian air force worked with Soviets during the mid Eighties. Using a briefcase with a false bottom he smuggled Belgian military secrets out of the headquarters of the general staff of the Belgian armed forces.
Today Brussels boasts no fewer than 300 diplomatic and consular missions, staffed by 26,000 diplomats. It is the HQ of numerous multinationals and international bodies. Even after the collapse of the Soviet Union it remained an intelligence hotspot and espionage activity certainly hasn’t decreased since the war in Ukraine.
Suitcases bricked into a wall
In 2003 counterintelligence discovered five black suitcases, full of eavesdropping equipment, bricked into the Justus Lipsius building, the main seat to the EU Council till 2017.
Exact figures are not available, but Belgian intelligence sources speak of several hundred spies being at work here. The spies work undercover and operate as ‘journalists, lobbyists, foreign students and diplomats’.
Diplomatic status offers spies the best protection as they possess immunity from prosecution. Host countries can do little but boot out spies from foreign powers operating on their territory. In April 2022 following the further Russian invasion of Ukraine, 21 Russian diplomats were declared ‘persona non grata’ and had to leave the country. The aerials on top of the Russian embassy were clearly used for more than watching TV. It’s believed that till 2022 one in three Russian diplomats stationed at the embassy in Ukkel (Brussels) was an intelligence officer.
Not just the Russians...
The Russians are not the only ones with an interest in Brussels. Rwandan and Congolese intelligence services are known to be extremely active here, keen to keep tabs on opposition figures who have found refuge in Belgium. China too operates a major intelligence operation in the capital.
As recently as 2019 European intelligence officers warned officials to be discrete in the pubs and the restaurants of the European district. A famous steak restaurant near the Berlaymont building, the headquarters of the European commission, was believed to be a hotbed of intelligence gathering.