Britain's Secret Intelligence Service, MI6, has been named Europe's leading foreign intelligence agency in a peer review conducted by French magazine L'Express, scoring 251 points — well ahead of second-placed France's DGSE (General Directorate for External Security) on 169. The review, based on assessments by 60 professionals from 25 countries, praised MI6 for its ability to recruit high-level informants and penetrate ruling elites in Russia, China, Iran and Turkey, with former CIA officials describing it as "extraordinary" and noting its leading role in supporting Ukraine ahead of and since Russia's February 2022 invasion. The Netherlands, Ukraine and Germany rounded out the top five, while Slovakia's service was rated the weakest among western-allied nations.