MOSCOW (Sputnik), Daria Chernyshova — The reform of the German intelligence service BND should make the body less dependent from the US National Security Agency (NSA), a German member of the European Parliament Udo Voigt told Sputnik Wednesday.
Earlier this week, German newspapers reported that BND chief Gerhard Schindler announced plans to restructure the intelligence agency in order to avoid more spying scandals similar to those that occurred in April, when media accused BND of spying on European citizens on behalf of the NSA.
“The only question which matters is the question whether the BND will remain in close collaboration with the American NSA further on or not. At the moment, the BND is working as a kind of German branch office of the American NSA and not as a German secret service which is working in the interest of the German state,” Udo Voigt told Sputnik.
“Without restructuring the collaboration between the BND and foreign secret services like the NSA nothing will change,” Voigt said. “The main question is: do we want to have a German secret service and a sovereign country or not?”
In April, German media uncovered internal intelligence investigation documents, indicating that the BND had been spying on high-ranking European officials and defense companies on behalf of the NSA.
