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# Letters — Issue 3
- URL: https://theroundabout.eu/letters-issue-3/
- Published: 2026-09-30T09:01:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-30T09:01:00.000Z
- Author: Aristidis Myrmidon
- Tags: Issue 3, Letters

In issue two, our investigation "The Disposable Agents" described INTCEN as having "no formal legal basis for its establishment and no publicly available mandate document." Dr Ing Helmut Sachverständiger of Bonn writes to offer a clarification.

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*To the Editors of The Roundabout*

*Sir,*

*I write, as before, in a capacity I am not at liberty to disclose, to offer a correction to your investigation in issue two, "The Disposable Agents," which I read with considerable interest and, in the main, approval.*

*Your description of the EU Hybrid Fusion Cell as having been "established in April 2016" is correct. Your description of it as sitting "within INTCEN" is also correct. However, your characterisation of INTCEN as having "no formal legal basis for its establishment" requires qualification. INTCEN does indeed lack a formal legal act establishing it as an EU agency in the conventional sense. It operates, rather, on the basis of a series of Council decisions, informal agreements between member states, and what I can only describe as institutional momentum. Whether this constitutes a "legal basis" depends, as so much in EU law does, on what one means by "legal" and what one means by "basis." I have views on this matter, which I am prepared to share in writing if your publication has the resources to receive them.*

*I would also note that your statement that INTCEN "has no publicly available mandate document" was accurate at the time of publication. A document has since been made available. It is 847 words long. It does not define the mandate.*

*I trust you will issue a correction of appropriate length.*

*Yours faithfully,* 
*Dr Ing Helmut Sachverständiger* 
*Bonn* 
*(formerly of the relevant committee, 1987-2019)*

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*We are grateful to Dr Ing Sachverständiger for his clarification, which we have passed to Our Brussels Correspondent. Our Brussels Correspondent has read it. He notes that a document of 847 words that does not define a mandate is, in his professional assessment, consistent with previous practice. We look forward to Dr Sachverständiger's further views on the distinction between "legal" and "basis," resources permitting.*