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Germany’s federal and state interior ministers have declared the Church of Scientology unconstitutional, clearing the way for a possible ban.

The ministers have asked Germany’s domestic intelligence agency to examine whether the Church’s legal status as an association could be challenged.

They said Germany’s domestic intelligence agencies should continue gathering information on the legality of Scientology’s activities in Germany so that a decision could be made about a possible ban next year.

But the domestic intelligence agencies have been closely monitoring Scientology’s operations for a decade and see little hope of amassing sufficient evidence to justify a ban.

Citing unnamed domestic intelligence agents familiar with the Scientology issue, Der Spiegel magazine reported that German authorities where having little success infiltrating the organization.

The magazine also said Scientology’s membership in Germany had stagnated.

Germany does not recognize Scientology as a religion and regard it as a cult masquerading as a church to make money.

German federal and state interior ministers declared the Church of Scientology unconstitutional on Friday, opening the door for a possible ban on the organization.

Federal Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble and 16 state interior chiefs agreed “that we do not consider Scientology an organization that is compatible with the constitution”, Ehrhart Koerting, Berlin’s interior minister and chairman of a ministers’ conference in Berlin, told reporters.

Germany does not recognize Scientology as a religion. seeing it as a cult masquerading as a church to make money. Scientologists reject this view.

The government permits the Church of Scientology to operate in Germany as an organization, and in January it opened a six-storey headquarters in the heart of west Berlin.

Scientology is mounting an offensive on Europe’s capitals and major cities. “National offices” already exist in Madrid, London and Brussels, and the opening of new branches was discussed at an “expansion summit” last year. “If we are to implement our planetary campaigns for salvation, then we have to reach the top levels of the German government in Berlin,” a Scientology document states, adding that the Berlin headquarters is responsible for “building the necessary in-roads to the German parliament, in order to ensure that our solutions are genuinely introduced to the whole of German society.”