DGSE (Direction générale de la sécurité extérieure)

From the BCRA to the DGSE

According to a DGSE text on the Ministry of the Armed Forces website, the Free French services were set up in London on 1 July 1940, and the Central Bureau of Intelligence and Action (Bureau central de renseignements et d’action, BCRA) was formally established in 1942 by a note from General de Gaulle’s staff. In November 1943 the BCRA was merged with General Giraud’s services in Algiers to form the Directorate-General of Special Services (Direction générale des services spéciaux, DGSS), which on 26 October 1944 was replaced by the Directorate-General for Studies and Research (Direction générale des études et recherches, DGER).²

In 1946 the SDECE was created; in 1982 it was renamed the DGSE and remained at boulevard Mortier.²

Functions and status

According to a 2017 Senate report, the DGSE is France’s external intelligence service, global in scope and reporting directly to the Minister of the Armed Forces; its missions are set out in Articles D.3126-2 and D.3126-3 of the Defence Code. It is “a special service with a dual mission of intelligence and action”, and an integrated one, meaning that it commands every method of intelligence collection; its technical resources are shared with the other services.¹

The DGSE is one of the six specialised intelligence services of the so-called first circle, alongside the DGSI, the DRM, the DRSD (formerly the DPSD), DNRED and Tracfin.³

Oversight

The 2015 Intelligence Act (reviewed by the Constitutional Council in decision no. 2015-713 DC of 23 July 2015) entrusted oversight of intelligence techniques to an independent authority, the CNCTR (National Commission for the Control of Intelligence Techniques). It has nine members (two each from the National Assembly, the Senate, the Council of State and the Court of Cassation, plus an expert in electronic communications) and, except in emergencies, gives a prior opinion on most authorisations issued by the Prime Minister.³

Parliamentary oversight after the fact is exercised by the Parliamentary Intelligence Delegation (Délégation parlementaire au renseignement), established by an Act of 9 October 2007.³

Since 2017 the work of the services has been coordinated by the National Intelligence and Counter-Terrorism Coordination (CNRLT) attached to the President, established by a decree of 14 June 2017.⁴