Under the document, the Intelligence Agency and the Counterintelligence Agency would be replaced by the Security and Intelligence Agency (SOA), which would be in charge of civilian intelligence, while the Military Security and Intelligence Agency (VSOA) would be in charge of military intelligence.
Prime Minister Ivo Sanader recalled that he and President Stjepan Mesic had agreed to reform the security and intelligence system, and that for this purpose a task force had beet set up and political parties consulted.
Sanader anticipated that a consensus might be reached on the draft law.
Under the document, the work of security and intelligence agencies would be monitored by parliament, the president of the republic, the government, the Office of the National Security Council, and the Council for the Civilian Supervision of Security and Intelligence Services.
Parliamentary monitoring would also include monitoring via the National Security Committee, which could also directly monitor security and intelligence agencies.
Intelligence agencies would continue to be monitored also by the Civilian Monitoring Council but the novelty is that the Council would monitor only at the request of members of the public.
The draft law defines the Office of the National Security Council as the body conducting expert monitoring of the work of intelligence agencies. The Office would also be in charge of expert monitoring of the Operative-Technical Centre, which is authorised for measures aimed at monitoring telecommunications.
The secret monitoring of telecommunications, including postal and other packages, and the secret monitoring and technical photographing of interiors of facilities, enclosed spaces and objects could be carried out only based on a written explanation of the order for monitoring, which would be issued by a Supreme Court judge.
The appointment and dismissals of heads of security and intelligence agencies would continue to be signed and countersigned by the president and the prime minister. The internal structure of SOA and VSOA would be regulated by by-laws.
PM Sanader announced for next week bills on data secrecy and information security, and for late April a motion on security checks, whereby the whole area of national security will have been defined.