Secret EU files at risk of AfD leaks to Kremlin, diplomats warn

 

Secret EU files at risk of AfD leaks to Kremlin, diplomats warn

 

Lawmakers fear Germany’s far right could be abusing its ability to view a database of thousands of internal EU documents.

 

March 24, 2026 4:00 am CET

By Zoya Sheftalovich and Nette Nöstlinger

https://www.politico.eu/article/afd-eu-documents-leak-kremlin/

 

BRUSSELS — Access to confidential EU documents by the Russia-friendly Alternative for Germany party is raising concerns that sensitive deliberations are being exposed to Moscow, three EU diplomats and four German lawmakers have said.

 

German MPs — including from the far-right AfD — have access to a databank containing thousands of EU files. Those include confidential notes from meetings of ambassadors where the bloc’s diplomats hash out their countries’ positions on geopolitical issues such as plans to fund Ukraine using frozen Russian assets.

 

“The problem is that we have a party, the AfD, of which there are justified suspicions of information leaking to China or Russia,” said Greens lawmaker Anton Hofreiter, chair of the Bundestag’s EU affairs committee.

 

Those suspicions are shaping how sensitive talks are conducted, as diplomats increasingly factor in the risk of exposure.

 

Budapest was accused in media reports over the weekend of passing information about confidential discussions by EU leaders to Moscow, claims Hungary’s foreign minister described as “fake news.” EU countries already meet in smaller groups over concerns that “less-than-loyal” countries leak sensitive information to the government of Russian President Vladimir Putin, a European government official said.

 

“We’re taking all kinds of precautions in Brussels to protect sensitive meetings and information,” said one senior EU diplomat. But the access that AfD MPs have to the confidential materials “leaves a giant, Putin-shaped hole in our security measures.”

 

“We’re all careful about sharing sensitive information in a format with 27 EU member states,” another diplomat said. “Whether because of [Hungarian leader Viktor] Orbán or because of the German system … we don’t freely share all information as you would among your closest confidants in a setting with 27 member states around the table. That’s the Hungarian factor, and that’s the AfD factor.”

 

An “ambassador cannot guarantee that any sensitive things he says in Coreper [the EU ambassadors’ format] are not going straight to the Russians or China,” the diplomat continued.

 

The diplomats POLITICO spoke to said they weren’t aware of these concerns being raised in any official capacity — “more at the watercooler,” the same diplomat said, adding there’s lots of chatter about concerns on the sidelines of meetings, particularly among countries in Europe’s northwest.

 

The AfD denies it passes information from the system to Russia or China. “We do not comment on baseless allegations,” a spokesperson for the AfD’s parliamentary group said in response to a request for comment. 

 

A leaky system

Unlike in other national parliaments, all MPs and their aides in Germany’s Bundestag have access to EuDoX, a databank containing thousands of EU files ranging from ministerial summit briefing notes to summaries of confidential meetings among ambassadors. The system was set up as a safeguard against unchecked executive power, a particular concern in Germany given its Nazi past.

 

The documents — around 25,000 per year — are put into the system by a special unit within the Bundestag that gets them from the government. The databank contains “restricted” documents, the lowest classification of confidential information. 

 

“In principle, this [access] is absolutely right and necessary in order to fulfill our task … to monitor the federal government, and since a great deal of this takes place at the EU level, it is, as I said, necessary,” the Greens’ Hofreiter said.

 

Experts also noted that the government is well aware that a large number of people have access to the system and that this creates the possibility of leaks. 

 

“Considering that EuDoX is a relatively open platform with 5,000 authorized users, there is nothing particularly sensitive in it. The federal government knows exactly what it is feeding into it,” said law professor Sven Hölscheidt from the Free University Berlin, who has studied the databank.

 

But seven German lawmakers or their aides who use the databank told POLITICO the AfD’s access is a security risk.

 

“The AfD’s apparent closeness to Putin, the contacts between numerous AfD lawmakers and the Russian embassy, their trips to Moscow, their adoption of Russian propaganda narratives, and their deliberate attempts to obtain security-related information through parliamentary inquiries are causing sleepless nights for all those who care deeply about the country’s security,” said Roland Theis, a senior lawmaker for German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s conservatives in the Bundestag’s EU affairs committee.

 

Centrist lawmakers have said AfD politicians expose information that could be of interest to Russian intelligence. That includes government information on local drone defenses, Western arms transports to Ukraine, and authorities’ knowledge of Russian sabotage and hybrid activities in the Baltic Sea region.

 

Late last year, the party’s lawmakers were widely accused of using their right to submit parliamentary questions to gather information for the Kremlin, claims the party’s leadership rejected. Earlier in 2025, a former aide to MEP Maximilian Krah was convicted of spying for China.

 

“In general, we view the AfD’s handling of sensitive information with great concern,” said Johannes Schraps, a senior SPD lawmaker in the Bundestag’s EU affairs committee, adding that this concern “stems from a broader pattern.”

 

The Bundestag administration took some steps toward securing information last year, Schraps said, including denying some AfD staff members access to buildings and parliamentary IT systems.

 

Chris Lunday and Max Griera contributed reporting.