Overview

• Frei has urged giving the Bundesnachrichtendienst significantly more financial, technical and legal authority to respond to emerging security challenges.
• He said Germany’s two-year-old National Security Strategy must be regularly revised to reflect evolving threats but declined to set a specific timeline.
• Planned legal reforms aim to enable effective data exchange among the BND, Verfassungsschutz and Bundeskriminalamt to improve coordination.
• The Union-SPD coalition agreement commits to bolstering the Verfassungsschutz and Bundeskriminalamt but does not explicitly mention the BND.
• Union and SPD plan to evolve the existing Bundessicherheitsrat into a National Security Council at the Chancellery; Frei says it requires a deliberate, phased approach to implementation.