Germany is preparing for the biggest reform of its foreign intelligence service since the end of World War II. Chancellor Friedrich Merz's cabinet wants to significantly expand the powers of the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), reducing Berlin's reliance on information sharing from the United States, prompted by growing concerns that Washington could curtail intelligence cooperation in the future.
According to information from the German media and international agencies, the BND will now be able to actively intervene against threats, not just collect and analyse information. The reform package foresees that the service could carry out sabotage operations, offensive cyber actions or targeted disruption of the infrastructure of hostile actors during security emergencies. But such a move would be subject to strict approval by a parliamentary oversight committee.
The current legal framework of the BND is based on the post-war desire to prevent the abuse of power by the secret services, as Germany experienced during the Nazi era and later during the East German Stasi era. Intelligence officers have therefore long lacked the power to intervene directly against identified threats. If they detected a planned cyber-attack, for example, they could pass the information on to other agencies, but could not counter-act themselves.
Security officials now argue that such restrictions are unsustainable in an era of hybrid threats and state-led cyber operations. BND chief Martin Jaeger has repeatedly warned of a growing number of sabotage, disinformation campaigns and attempts to destabilise European countries. In Germany alone, authorities have recorded hundreds of suspicious incidents linked to Russian structures.
Geopolitical developments in the United States also play a decisive role in the debate. German politicians openly admit that any restrictions on intelligence sharing by the Donald Trump administration would have a major impact on Europe. The temporary suspension of U.S. support for Ukraine in the past, according to Berlin, showed how much leverage Washington holds in the area of intelligence.
The government of Friedrich Merz has therefore increased the BND's budget by around 26 percent to €1.51 billion this year. The reform is to include a partial relaxation of strict data protection rules to allow the service to make more effective use of artificial intelligence, big data analysis and facial recognition technology.
Critics warn of a weakening of civil liberties and recall Germany's historical experience with the secret police. But coalition politicians argue that without modernising intelligence powers, the country will remain vulnerable in a „game without rules“.
gnews.cz - GH
Czech 
English 
Spanish 
French 
Italian 
Russian 
Chinese 
German