The Service de Renseignement de l'État, full name Service de renseignement de l'État du Luxembourg (, , abbr. SREL), is Luxembourg's homeland intelligence agency. The agency is colloquially known in
Luxembourgish
Luxembourgish ( ; also ''Luxemburgish'', ''Luxembourgian'', ''Letzebu(e)rgesch''; ) is a West Germanic language that is spoken mainly in Luxembourg. About 400,000 people speak Luxembourgish worldwide.
The language is standardized and officiall ...
as the "''Spëtzeldéngscht''“ ("Spy Service").
Purpose
The SRE was set up to collect and evaluate data, to deal with threats to
Luxembourg
Luxembourg, officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, is a landlocked country in Western Europe. It is bordered by Belgium to the west and north, Germany to the east, and France on the south. Its capital and most populous city, Luxembour ...
, its allies or international organisations based in the country, particularly in regard to critical
infrastructure
Infrastructure is the set of facilities and systems that serve a country, city, or other area, and encompasses the services and facilities necessary for its economy, households and firms to function. Infrastructure is composed of public and pri ...
, especially energy and water infrastructure, road infrastructure, and information technology.
The service was restructured in 2004, under pressure from the “
war on terror”, created after the
terror attacks on 11 September 2001. The restructuring resulted in the legal basis for the creation of an intelligence agency (''Loi du 15 juin 2004 portant organisation du Service de Renseignement de l’Etat'') to deal with the following threats:
*Preparation and execution of
terrorist attacks
The following is a list of terrorist incidents that were not carried out by a state or its forces (see state terrorism and state-sponsored terrorism). Assassinations are presented in List of assassinations and unsuccessful attempts at List o ...
*
Espionage
Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering, as a subfield of the intelligence field, is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information ( intelligence). A person who commits espionage on a mission-specific contract is called an ...
*Interference of foreign states in national affairs
*Proliferation of
weapons of mass destruction
A weapon of mass destruction (WMD) is a Biological agent, biological, chemical weapon, chemical, Radiological weapon, radiological, nuclear weapon, nuclear, or any other weapon that can kill or significantly harm many people or cause great dam ...
*
Organized crime
Organized crime is a category of transnational organized crime, transnational, national, or local group of centralized enterprises run to engage in illegal activity, most commonly for profit. While organized crime is generally thought of as a f ...
, provided it is in relation to the threats mentioned above
*Carrying out security checks on persons that come into contact with confidential information by profession (e.g. Government officials, public administration)
*Worldwide surveillance, and decryption of electronic communications
Leadership
Patrick Heck has been the executive director of the SRE since March 1, 2010, and his predecessor Marco Mille held the position from December 17th, 2003 to February 28th, 2010.
Bombers affair
As part of the legal proceedings regarding a series of unsolved bombings which took place during the mid-1980s, commonly referred to as the
Bombers Affair, over the years the dubious practices of the SRE were exposed.
In July 2013 the final report of the commission of enquiry, which was appointed six months beforehand and headed by future Deputy Prime Minister
François Bausch
François Bausch (born 16 October 1956) is a Luxembourgish politician of the Greens who served as Second Deputy Prime Minister of Luxembourg from 2019 to 2023. He was a member of the Chamber of Deputies from 1989 to 1992, from 1994 to 2013 and ...
, was published. The report placed the political responsibility of the uncontrolled activities of the SRE upon prime minister
Jean-Claude Juncker
Jean-Claude Juncker (; born 9 December 1954) is a Luxembourgish politician who was List of prime ministers of Luxembourg, prime minister of Luxembourg from 1995 to 2013 and president of the European Commission from 2014 to 2019. He also was List ...
. Juncker had also fallen victim to the practices of the SRE, as in 2007 the then intelligence chief Marco Mille secretly recorded a conversation between himself and Juncker.
Juncker announced
new elections on 10 July 2013, following the scandal surrounding the activities of the SRE.
[ ]RTL Télé Lëtzebuerg
RTL may refer to:
Media
* RTL Group, a European TV, radio, and production company
*** List of RTL Group's television stations (including part-owned channels)
*** List of RTL Group's radio stations
** RTL Lëtzebuerg, usually referred to simply ...
See also
*
Frank Schneider
References
External links
Addresses of the 'Service de Renseignement'(French)
Sûreté Extérieure et Service de Renseignement – The legal requirements(French, PDF, 91 kB)
''Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung'' article (German)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Service de Renseignement de l'Etat
Government agencies of Luxembourg
Government agencies established in 1960
Domestic intelligence agencies