Interior Minister Roumen Petkov remained the only “unhappy” person with the draft bill on the National Security Agency, the first reading of which was adopted by Parliament on October 11.
In Parliament, Petkov critisised the draft bill, saying that Bulgaria was hardly in desperate need of a National Agency on Security Act in precisely this form. He argued that in the proposed version of the draft legislation, fighting corruption in the upper echelons of power was no longer a priority. His biggest worry was that the bill copied passages from the sections of the Ministry of Interior Act on the current National Security Service (NSS). The formation of a NSA was suggested by Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev in May. Since then, Petkov has expressed doubts repeatedly about it, particularly because the draft bill provides for the NSA to be structured on the basis of the NSS, which will split off from the Ministry of Interior, Military Counterintelligence, which will be separated from the Ministry of Defence, and the Financial Intelligence Agency, which will leave the Ministry of Finance. The NSA will carry out counter-intelligence, intelligence, operational detection, surveillance, identification, counteraction and prevention of acts against national security. The draft bill proposes that in pursuit of its activities, the NSA be competent to arrange and conduct surveillance and control of persons, sites and activities related to national security, and to possess, apply and employ special surveillance means.
NSA's idea received strong support from US ambassador John Beyrle. On October 16, Beyrle told Bulgarian news agency BTA that the NSA should be headed by professionals rather than by political figures. “The Government-proposed alterations in the structure of the intelligence services are good and the upcoming changes are logical,” he was quoted as saying. The new agency should be under the tight control of Parliament, Beyrle said.
Whether Petkov will prevail will be seen when the draft bill is put for a second reading. It all depends on how strong Petkov’s position is in Parliament. On October 11, he said that he believed that there was a strong will in Parliament to amend the bill at second reading stage.
