MI6 Voted Europe's Top Intelligence Agency by Panel of Sixty Global Intelligence Professionals

MI6 has been named Europe's top intelligence agency in a first-of-its-kind survey that asked serving and former spy chiefs to rank their continental rivals. The British service topped a field of 25 countries, finishing well ahead of France's DGSE in second place. The ranking was organised by French weekly magazine L'Express, which invited 60 intelligence professionals, including 17 heads or former heads of a secret service, to submit their own top five agencies.

The format was modelled on football's Ballon d'Or and the Eurovision Song Contest. Jurors awarded five points for first place, down to one point for fifth. L'Express said the selection criteria were 'efficiency and reliability'.

How the Ballon D'Or-Style Ranking Worked

MI6 finished on 251 points while the DGSE, France's foreign intelligence service, came second with 169 points. The gap of 82 points between the top two agencies was significant. The Dutch AIVD placed third with 97 points, Ukraine's FISU took fourth with 77 points, and Germany's BND rounded out the top five with 62 points.

Sweden, Norway, Estonia, Poland and Denmark completed the top ten.

Why Spy Chiefs Ranked MI6 Above Their Own Agencies

Several of the jurors offered their own reasoning for MI6's position at the top. Former CIA station chief Robert Gorelick told L'Express, 'The United Kingdom by far has the strongest intelligence services in Europe. MI6 is extraordinary.'

A former DGSE executive credited the agency's patience, saying the British 'have the ability to play the long game, to bet on sources over ten years, a bit like the Russians' and 'have a penchant for underhand tactics'. Olivier Mas, a senior DGSE officer until 2017, pointed to recruitment as a factor.

He said 'all European intelligence services draw inspiration from British methods' and noted that 'the best from Cambridge and Oxford join MI6'. Ralph Goff, former head of CIA operations for Europe and Eurasia, singled out MI6's role in the war in Ukraine. He said 'the British are leading the way on the Ukrainian file' while other agencies are 'just behind'.

L'Express noted that not every juror was willing to speak openly. The magazine said 'some resisted' taking part and 'a few invoked secrecy', while most saw it as a rare chance to discuss their profession 'without betraying their oath'.

From 1909 to Vauxhall Cross: MI6's Journey to the Top

MI6, formally the Secret Intelligence Service, was established in 1909 as the Foreign Section of the Secret Service Bureau. Mansfield Cumming, a 50-year-old Royal Naval officer, was chosen to lead the foreign section that October, beginning a tradition in which every subsequent chief has signed correspondence with the initial 'C'.

The agency moved to its current Vauxhall Cross headquarters in 1994. Its existence was not officially acknowledged by the government until the same year, under the Intelligence Services Act. The service is now led by Blaise Metreweli, who became MI6's first female chief in 2025.

The result comes as Western intelligence agencies face growing scrutiny over their handling of the war in Ukraine and rising tension with Russia, China and Iran. A peer-reviewed ranking of this kind is unusual. Intelligence agencies rarely comment publicly on each other's capabilities, let alone submit formal rankings, which makes the willingness of 60 serving and former officials to take part notable in itself.

For the UK, the result offers a rare piece of soft-power validation from within an industry defined by secrecy. It comes at a time when the government continues to lean on MI6's Ukraine-related work and its long-standing recruitment pipeline from British universities.