German Cabinet agrees draft to reform foreign intelligence service

The step is also a response to Russian spying on the intelligence service last year.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz and his ministers agreed on a draft from the Chancellor's Office during their retreat.

The ministers also agreed on ways to prevent espionage from within the ranks of the BND, allowing random, independent checks on staff, bags and vehicles.

Officials should also be able to check the smartphones of staff in cases where they suspsect something may be amiss. "Possible espionage activities of other intelligence services are to be detected at an early stage through the checks," the draft says.

That part comes after a BND employee was arrested in Berlin on suspicion of espionage last December for allegedly passing on information obtained in the course of his work to Moscow after the Kremlin started the war on Ukraine.

The Cabinet also passed a resolution to amend the Constitutional Protection Act for the domestic intelligence service and the law on the military counter-intelligence service.