Germany's governing coalition is moving to impose tighter rules on the country's foreign intelligence agency amid allegations that it spied on France's foreign minister among other targets in friendly nations.
Lawmakers told rbb-Inforadio station Friday that Chancellor Angela Merkel's coalition agreed on basic points of a reform for the Federal Intelligence Service, known by its German initials BND. Clemens Binninger, a lawmaker with Merkel's party, said that "we will certainly protect European governments and institutions" from spying by the agency.
Reports over the past week claimed the BND targeted, among others, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, and the phone numbers and email addresses of officials in Britain, Switzerland, Greece, the Vatican and other European countries.
The government declined to confirm those reports but says the allegations will be comprehensively investigated.
