Politico: Germany Will Give Sweeping New Powers To Its Foreign Intelligence Agency
- 18.02.2026, 13:23
For offensive operations.
Germany is taking steps to strengthen its foreign intelligence agency in a bid to give it sweeping new powers in preparation for a possible breakdown in relations with the United States.
This is according to Politico.
The plan comes amid growing concern among leaders in Germany and other European countries that US President Donald Trump could halt intelligence sharing, on which Europe heavily depends, or use that dependence to his advantage.
According to officials in Berlin, just as European countries must radically strengthen their militaries to gain greater autonomy, Germany's intelligence apparatus must become much more effective.
"We want to continue to work closely with the Americans. But if the [U.S.] president, whoever he is, decides in the future to act independently, without the Europeans ... then we must be prepared to stand on our own," Mark Heinrichmann, chairman of a special commission in Germany's Bundestag that oversees the country's intelligence services, told Politico.
German leaders believe the need has become especially urgent in their country, where foreign intelligence has far more legal restrictions than intelligence services in other countries.
According to the publication, Chancellor Friedrich Merz wants to strengthen and free the country's foreign intelligence service from restrictions by giving it much broader powers to carry out acts of sabotage, offensive cyber operations and more aggressive espionage.
The German Federal Intelligence Service (BND) is currently subject to a strict mechanism of parliamentary control. Its powers are limited to collecting and analyzing intelligence information. Agents have no legal authority to intervene to prevent potential threats.
These restrictions are no longer justified, especially given the threat of Russian sabotage, German officials say.
Because of weak intelligence, Germany relies heavily on covert U.S. operations to prevent planned attacks. For example, the U.S. warned of a Russian assassination attempt on the Rheinmetall CEO and an attempted attack on the Israeli embassy in Berlin.
As indicated, Germany was shocked when Washington temporarily halted intelligence sharing with Ukraine last March to pressure Kiev during peace talks with Russia.
This episode showed that the Trump administration is willing to use U.S. dominance in intelligence gathering to pressure allies. A few months later, Merz pledged to significantly increase the BND's capabilities.
In particular, Merz's government has increased the BND's budget to 1.51 billion euros this year. The chancellor also seeks to relax the data protection rules to which the BND is subject, allowing the use of artificial intelligence and facial recognition.
The chancellery hopes to bring the full package of proposed reforms to a vote in parliament before the fall.