Huber,
Hermanns,
Müller,
Kessal-Wulf,
König,
Maidowski
held on 13 October 2016:
1. The application of applicant no. 3 is dismissed [as inadmissible].
2. The application of applicants no. 1 and 2 is rejected.
Reasons:
A.
The Organstreit proceedings (dispute between highest federal organs) concern the
question whether the Federal Government, respondent no. 1 and respondent no. 2,
may refuse the request of the 1st Committee of Inquiry of the 18th German Bundestag (so-called Committee of Inquiry into NSA Activities, NSAUntersuchungsausschuss) to hand over evidence, for reasons of conflicting obligations under international law as well as for the purpose of protecting the functioning of
German intelligence services and their ability to cooperate.
1
Applicants no. 1 and 2 are the parliamentary groups DIE LINKE and BÜNDNIS 90/
DIE GRÜNEN in the Bundestag. Applicant no. 3 comprises those members of the
Committee of Inquiry into NSA Activities that are also members of applicants no. 1
and 2.
2
I.
[Excerpt from Press Release no. 84/2016 of 15 November 2016]
The US-American NSA and the BND were cooperating for the purpose of signals intelligence. Within this cooperation, the BND searched data diverted from an Internet
hub, assessing the data in the light of criteria that had been determined by the NSA –
the so-called selectors. After the press had reported in the summer of 2013 that EU
representations as well as German holders of fundamental rights had been affected
by the joint signals intelligence by the BND and the NSA, the Bundestag established
the
so-called
Committee
of
Inquiry
into
NSA
Activities
(NSAUntersuchungsausschuss) in March 2014. The Committee of Inquiry requested from
the Federal Government to hand over any evidence that would provide information as
to the BND’s knowledge of whether and to what extent the NSA within the scope of
cooperation had pursued intelligence activities with regard to German targets or German interests. Subsequently, the Federal Government provided pieces of evidence;
5/25