EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton has hired a Polish secret service officer to be the main architect of internal security in the European External Action Service (EEAS).

The officer, whose name is being kept under wraps, was parachuted into Brussels from Warsaw to begin work on 1 June and is expected to stay in the EU capital until the end of the year.

His job is to chair a new “working group” that will design security protocols for the diplomatic corps, concentrating on physical security of EEAS buildings in Brussels and communications systems with the EU’s 136 foreign delegations.

The group, which meets once a week, also includes “15 or so” delegates from the commission, the EU Council, the Belgian EU presidency, France, the Netherlands and Sweden.

“They are mostly diplomats, but not all of them,” a contact in the EU institutions said. “They come from those member states who are the most interested in security. In setting this up, you need expertise and experience.”

The EEAS, which is expected to start work in October or November, will handle classified documents.

The Council and commission already have detailed security protocols, but they are not water-tight. EU diplomats are fond of telling the anecdote how a Russian diplomat was once escorted from a meeting of the Political and Security Committee in the Council after wandering in “by mistake.”