The German Executive has given the green light this Wednesday to an expansion of the powers of the Federal Intelligence Service (BND) to operate outside its borders, which includes actions of sabotage, participation in campaigns against disinformation, and hacking of servers abroad.
The legislative proposal, which at the same time introduces stricter oversight over the Intelligence services, still needs to be submitted for approval by Parliament, where Chancellor Friedrich Merz has a sufficient majority to push it through.
Although the reform has been in preparation for months, the growing risk of episodes of espionage, sabotage, and other hybrid warfare tactics, particularly attributed to Russia, has accelerated its processing. The goal is to place the German Intelligence services at the level of those of its main allies.
The text of the draft was made public at the beginning of July. Among the new features are aspects such as the possibility of cross-referencing biometric data with information available on the internet and the authorization to conduct online searches, a covert technique that allows access to a device to analyze the data it stores.
This expansion of powers will be accompanied by a strengthening of the control mechanisms over the BND. Among them is the imposition of a maximum limit of five years on the surveillance of an organization suspected of being an extremist group, a period that can only be extended with the express authorization of the Ministry of the Interior.
Among the political formations investigated by the BND is the far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD), which has been assigned the category of confirmed extremist group since May 2025, although this classification is currently under judicial review.