THE security service MI5 is to investigate the bugging of European Union offices amid concerns that the Russian or Israeli intelligence services may be spying on diplomats from Britain and five other countries.

The Belgian federal prosecutor’s office is to call in experts from Britain to carry out DNA and other scientific tests to establish who planted telephone tapping devices to bug rooms where high-level discussions on security and trade were taking place.

The Belgian authorities have admitted that the investigation was initially mishandled and senior intelligence services from six European countries, including Britain, are to hold a special meeting to discuss the security lapse.

When EU officials discovered the bugs in February at the Justus Lipsius building in Brussels, they dismissed them as old and said that they might have been planted when the block was opened in 1995. But evidence from other sources has suggested that the bugging operation was more sophisticated and well planned than previously thought.

Two years ago concerns at the poor level of security in the building led the EU to move meetings of its military committee to a less vulnerable location.

Security staff at the Justus Lipsius building found the bugs attached to telephone lines leading from the switchboard to offices where delegations from Britain, France, Germany, Austria, Italy and Spain held meetings before and after sessions of the European Council, the forum where national ministers meet.

To penetrate the building’s security and bug six delegations was regarded with grudging admiration by intelligence officials, who compared it to the film Mission: Impossible, in which Tom Cruise plays a master spy. The bugs would have provided whoever planted them with valuable information on negotiating strategies and other confidential material.

EU officials suspect either Israel or Russia because of the types of device used and because they both have motives. Israel has long objected to the EU sending aid to the Palestinians, and Russia’s defence and economic interests are directly affected by EU decisions.

A meeting of representatives of international intelligence agencies is planned later this month in Brussels. It will bring together top terrorism experts from six counterespionage agencies across Europe. As well as Britain’s MI5 there will be Germany’s Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz; Austria’s Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz und Terrorismusbekampfung; Italy’s Servizio per le Informazioni e la Sicurezza Democratica; Spain’s Centro Nacional de Inteligencia and France’s Direction de la Surveillance du Territoire.

The federal prosecutor’s office said MI5 and other security agencies were being asked to run fingerprint and DNA tests on the bugging devices and the crime scene. “The Belgian federal police service has no espionage specialists of its own, so we have to ask for help,” said Lisa Pellens, a spokeswoman.

Council officials say the bugging devices could also be linked to corporate or industrial espionage.

“The EU is a big economic player, and decisions by the council can affect multi- million-pound trade deals as well as policies on company mergers and taxation,” said Nicholas Kerleroux, a council spokesman.

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