German Politicians Argue About Intelligence Control After Spying Scandal

The two leading German parties - CDU and SPD – have different views on how to make the work of intelligence services more transparent and better control data sharing, according to the German newspaper Die Zeit.

There is dispute among the members of the German grand coalition about how to better control the work of the Federal Intelligence Service (BND) and avoid espionage scandals in the future, the German newspaper Die Zeit reported.

The CDU party is proposing to introduce a new Bundestag intelligence officer vacancy which would control BND activities. The SPD party, for its turn, wants to improve supervision by hiring additional staff.

"We do not need a new face, no Mr. or Mrs. Intelligence Control, but more human and material resources," SPD chairman Christian Flisek said as cited by the newspaper.

The dispute comes a few weeks after a massive spying scandal, when it became known that the German intelligence service had been sharing Internet surveillance data with the US National Security Agency (NSA).

It was also reported earlier that Europol is planning to establish a joint counterterrorism center which will obtain data of the domestic intelligence services of EU states to better control the information sharing.