The PKGr can include transitional members who are no longer members of the Bundestag: In order to ensure uninterrupted oversight of the federal intelligence services, the Parliamentary Oversight Panel continues to carry out its activities beyond the end of an electoral period of the German Bundestag until the subsequent German Bundestag has decided on a new composition (Section 3 (4) PKGrG). Such a situation existed, for example, on October 24, 2013, when, in connection with the 2013 surveillance and espionage affair and indications of eavesdropping by the United States of America on Chancellor Angela Merkel, the FDP members of the 17th German Bundestag who had not been reelected to the 18th German Bundestag took part in a special meeting of the Oversight Panel during the legislative term of the 18th German Bundestag.