Klingbeil chairs cabinet: more security vetting for critical infrastructure staff
With Merz in Asia, Vice Chancellor Lars Klingbeil chairs the cabinet meeting. On the agenda: wider security checks for staff at critical facilities amid espionage and sabotage.
Photo: Michael Lucan / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 de (cropped and resized)
Germany's federal cabinet meets today from 10 a.m. under Vice Chancellor and Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil of the Social Democrats, as Chancellor Friedrich Merz is travelling in Asia. The main item is an Interior Ministry regulation that would widen the group of employees at critical facilities who undergo security vetting, such as staff in a railway company's control centre or in the control room of a dam. A ministry spokeswoman said the cabinet was due to discuss the regulation.
The move responds to a rise in espionage and sabotage, mainly by actors working on Russia's behalf. The checks, which involve the domestic intelligence service, assess whether a person may not support the democratic order, could be blackmailed or might be recruited by foreign services or extremists.