At a defense council held in Paris on Wednesday, French President Emmanuel Macron decided on a new body including all the country's intelligences services to better coordinate response to eventual terror risk, his office said.
Dogged by critics over weakness in dealing with security risk, Macron said the National Counter-Terrorism Centre would contribute in reinforcing "protection against the strong and lasting terrorist threat which France is facing."
Under the direct authority of the president, the new intelligence force aims at "ensuring stronger coordination and stepping up the committed services," in order to have faster and better coordinated response among all the intelligence services.
Former head of Directorate of Territorial Surveillance (DST) Bousquet de Florian was named to head the counter-terrorism body.
Macron also picked Bernard Emie as the new chief of the General Directorate for external services (DGSE, external intelligence service) and Laurent Nunez at the General Directorate for Internal Security (DGSI).
Speaking after a weekly cabinet meeting, Christophe Castaner, government spokesman said "these appointments are a strategic choice."
"It's an overall strategy of action, coordination to strengthen all our intelligence resources," he added, warning that "zero risk doesn't exist."
Macron's move to muscle security came a day after an Algerian PhD student attacked police officers outside Notre Dame Cathedral on Tuesday afternoon in an apparent act to revenge war in Syria.
France remains top target of terrorist cells due to its military intervention in Iraq, Syria and the Sahel region.
On Nov.13, 2015, shootings and suicide bombings left 130 people dead and hundreds of thers wounded in Paris and in the city's northern suburb Saint-Denis. The attacks were the deadliest in France since World War II and the deadliest in the European Union.
