Politics · de.indymedia · · 2h
Parliamentary control committee: operating in the gray area
Deutsch (original) · Auto-translated to English
Symbolbild · Daniel Schwen / CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
The presidents of the federal secret services demanded significantly more powers in the Bundestag today in order to work “on an equal level” with other services. They cite a new threat situation and technological developments as reasons. The consequences for fundamental rights became a side note.
The heads of the federal secret services rarely speak out in public. Once a year, however, they have to answer questions from members of the German Bundestag.
Found it todayhttps://www.bundestag.de/mediathek/video?videoid=7665168">tenthpublic hearingthrough thathttps://www.bundestag.de/ausschuesse/weitere_gremien/parlamentarisches-k...Control Board(PKGr). For a total of three hours, the MPs questioned the presidents of the Federal Intelligence Service (BND), Martin Jäger, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), Sinan Selen, and the President of the Military Counterintelligence Service (BAMAD), Martina Rosenberg.
https://www.bundestag.de/presse/hib/kurzmeldeen-1222500">HeadquartersTopicsThe three-hour hearing focused on the threat from Russia, political extremism and the upcoming reform of the services. The appointment was not overly critical. Instead, the three secret service heads were able to present their arguments for more powers largely unchallenged.
In this electoral period, only six parliamentarians from the Union, SPD and Greens are represented in the PKGr, which is supposed to control the secret services. Candidates from the ranks of the AfD faction and the Left faction did not receive the necessary majority in elections.
Russia is waging a “shadow war”
All three presidents pointed out a new security and threat situation right from the start. Because Russia is waging a “shadow war” against Germany, they are currently in a “gray zone,” said BND chief Martin Jäger. “We are not at peace, but we are not at war either.” And to ensure security in this gray area, “customized skills” are needed, added Sinan Selen.
By “perfect fit” the secret service chiefs mean two things in particular. On the one hand, the foreign and domestic secret services want to operate on an equal footing with other services. In concrete terms, this means no longer just collecting information, but also being able to intervene operationally. On the other hand, the “immense development” in so-called artificial intelligence offers enormous opportunities, as all three secret service heads emphasized. This is also why the transformation of services must be accelerated.
More powers to operate “on an equal footing”.
This transformation is already well underway. The Bundestaghttps://netzpolitik.org/2026/bundetagsdebatte-zur-geheimdienstreform-zw...currentlyahttps://www.bmi.bund.de/SharedDocs/gesetzlementverfahren/DE/Downloads/k...730-page bill, which is intended to significantly upgrade the Office for the Protection of the Constitution and the Federal Intelligence Service. The services should be allowed to hack and be given an arsenal of new powers for AI and biometrics.
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BfV President Selen believes it is overdue to replenish what he sees as the services’ “deficient toolbox”. The Office for the Protection of the Constitution is heavily dependent on foreign partners, which is why processes often take too long. In addition, better interaction is crucial - both between the services and between the Office for the Protection of the Constitution and the police.
“The interoperability of the BND and BfV is vital to ward off attacks on the free, democratic basic order,” said Selen. In addition, attackers would not wait until the Office for the Protection of the Constitution had passed on relevant information to the police authorities.
With the new powers, as currently provided for in the cabinet draft for the reform of intelligence law, the German secret services could finally operate on an equal footing with other services, said Martin Jäger. "If the BND law comes along as it is currently being discussed in the Bundestag, we would have found a way to catch up with what is already standard in Europe today," said the BND President.
Reference to more control
This new standardhttps://netzpolitik.org/2026/stellungnahme-zur-geheimdienstreform-ein-e...Representatives of civil society are sometimes considered unconstitutional. The bill addresses thathttps://www.bpb.de/themen/innere-sicherheit/dossier-innere-sicherheit/13...between secret services and policeAccording to the concentrated criticism, it lowers the hurdles for encroaching on fundamental rights, gives the services significantly more powers and at the same time limits the control options.
The secret service presidents see it differently. “We welcome the expansion of control,” emphasized Martin Jäger today, “it will be more effective and better.” In fact, from now on, the “judicial-like control body” of the Independent Control Council, which has just nine members, will control both the BND and the BfV. The G10 Commission is dissolved and the Federal Data Protection Commissioner is pushed to the sidelines.
From Reporters Without Borders' perspective, the planned control structure is not only inadequate, but...https://media.reporter-ohne-borne.de/production/6396/01KXJSJZPFEVEBEA0...doesn't close eitherto the level of other European countries. France and the Netherlands, for example, offer stronger source protection. And in British intelligence controlhttps://netzpolitik.org/2026/geheimdienstreform-der-schutz-von-journalis...itan “advocate for those affected” who represents the interests of people affected by intelligence measures. The federal government's planned secret service reform does not provide for anything comparable.
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Evaluate data with AI
According to the draft law, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and the BND should also be able to evaluate personal data automatically in the future. This also includes the use of so-called artificial intelligence.
For Martin Jäger, the use of AI is a “key question”. The technology is increasingly raising new security questions. “Everyone is vulnerable,” emphasized Jäger, and there is an enormous race to protect one’s systems against AI-controlled hacks. But his service also wants to take advantage of the opportunities offered by AI evaluations. According to the BND boss, the mass of available data can no longer be managed with manual analyses.
Selen added that the use of AI “cannot be done cost-effectively”. Here the secret services are dependent on the Bundestag, which decides on the budget. And Parliament would also have to legally create the conditions so that the services can operate in a “technology-open” manner in the future.
Fundamental rights are probably only an issue in Karlsruhe
The authority to carry out “qualified evaluation” of personal datahttps://netzpolitik.org/2026/stellungnahme-zur-geheimdienstreform-ein-e...for example, the Society for Freedom Rights as a serious encroachment on fundamental rights. The GFF is particularly critical of the fact that AI systems should be able to trigger operational measures autonomously in the future, i.e. be able to automatically initiate and carry out so-called hackbacks.
The members of the PKGr failed to question the secret service presidents about this today. After all, the deputy chairman of the PKGr, Konstantin von Notz (Greens), stated that from his point of view the law “will definitely end up in Karlsruhe”. By then there will hopefully be an opportunity for critical inquiries.
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Source: de.indymedia