Germany to give spy services sharp teeth amid rights concerns

BERLIN: The German government plans Wednesday to put forward a major overhaul of the country’s intelligence agencies to give them broad new powers to conduct covert operations and take action against foreign threats.

The reforms, under discussion for several months, would loosen strict rules that have largely limited Germany’s secret services to gathering intelligence and passing on reports.

Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s coalition has argued that more powerful intelligence agencies are needed to counter the threats posed by hostile foreign powers as well as terrorist groups and cybercriminals.

German officials accuse Moscow of waging a “hybrid” campaign of sabotage, espionage and disinformation against the country, which is among Ukraine’s biggest military supporters in the war with Russia.

“We are in the thick of a hybrid conflict not only with Russia but also with other actors,” Marc Henrichmann, chairman of the parliament’s intelligence oversight committee, told AFP. “And so our intelligence services must also keep pace with the times and stay one step ahead of the curve.”

He argued Germany’s cautious approach has left it “behind the curve” and unable to properly contribute to European security.

Henrichmann pointed to a string of recent incidents, including an explosive-laden drone discovered at Leipzig airport last week, to underscore the importance of the changes.

“We face adversaries who play without any rules at all,” he said. “Their goal is not merely to put the West, the EU and Germany under pressure, but ideally to bring them to their knees.”

No lethal operations

For decades, Germany has placed its BND foreign intelligence agency and the BfV domestic spy service under tight restrictions that largely rule out cloak-and-dagger operations as practised by the CIA or Mossad.

Those rules were imposed in part because of the gruesome abuses carried out by the Nazi dictatorship.

“The German intelligence services were essentially, until recently, information collection services,” Peter Neumann, a professor of security studies at King’s College London, told AFP.

“They have some powers to collect information and give policymakers a better picture, but they are very restricted in what they were allowed to do with that information.”

Germany has invested record sums in rebuilding its military in the wake of Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and Henrichmann and others argue that an expansion of the spy services is likewise needed.

The proposal would potentially allow the spy agencies to carry out cyberattacks of their own, such as disabling foreign IT systems being used by hostile actors or blocking flows of payments.

Powers to collect and analyse data are also being expanded for both the BND and the BfV, including permission to use artificial intelligence to scan vast datasets and retain certain data for longer periods.

The legislative package, spanning over 700 pages, also regulates powers for controversial measures such as online surveillance and tracking.

The BND spy agency could also receive permission to carry out foreign sabotage missions, though assassinations and other lethal operations would remain strictly forbidden under German law.

“We are turning our intelligence agencies into genuine secret services,” Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt told the Bild daily.

“We are providing a new response to the hybrid threat landscape and attempts at destabilisation through sabotage, espionage, cyberattacks, and covert actions by foreign powers,” Dobrindt told the newspaper, adding that the reform would put Germany “on an equal footing with our partner agencies around the world”.

Neumann said that the spy services in many of Germany’s European allies, such as Britain, France or the Netherlands, already have “significantly more powers”.

Greens MP Konstantin von Notz, vice-chairman of the intelligence oversight committee, said that “new and robust powers are fundamentally appropriate given the challenging current security climate”.

But von Notz argued the current draft legislation goes “too far” in failing to strengthen independent oversight of the agencies, and risks violating a ban in Germany’s constitution on a secret service holding any kind of police power.

The Society for Civil Rights has also argued that the new digital surveillance powers would “deeply infringe upon fundamental rights”.