strengthening their position as basic components of the national defense system;

• promoting Romaniapromoting Romania’
• concentrating their activity on the main directions defined on the basis of the strategic planning concepts:
• fighting terrorism and international organized crime;
• protecting vital economic resources;
• protecting IT infrastructures;
• investigating and fighting corruption.

The diffuse, multidirectional and unpredictable character of the internal and external risks and threats to Romania’s general security goals, as well as the dynamic of the destabilizing phenomena on the international level entail the taking of measures for adapting the missions of the Romanian intelligence services, having in view their efficient administration. The emphasis is on:

• increasing the role and importance of the activities of gathering secret and anticipatory information;
• redimensioning the structure and tasks regarding asymmetric threats;
• diversifying the means and methods of work;
• the efficient administration of the actions in the area of economic security;
• safeguarding the state secret information and protecting the classified information, according to the security standards in the Euro-Atlantic area.

Dynamising the activity of the national intelligence community and achieving the compatibility of their components are the main focus of Romania’s Presidency, Government and Parliament. The meetings of the policy makers of the state with the heads of the intelligence services represent opportunities of analyzing and evaluating the risks and threats to the national security. Every time they reaffirmed the necessity that the intelligence services, together with all state institutions, should represent an active factor in fulfilling Romania’s fundamental goals – the integration into NATO and the European Union.

• The attributes and duties of the intelligence services – in full accordance with the law provisions and the principles of the rule of law.

In order to fulfill the missions incumbent on the intelligence services, internal mechanisms have been set up, meant to put into practice the juridical guarantees on safeguarding the citizens’ fundamental rights and liberties. There were guaranteed the legitimacy, solidity and timeliness of the actions and measures taken in fulfilling the functional attributions, ensuring the full observance and the correct application of the Constitution’s provisions, of the laws and the other normative documents of national security, and, on their basis, the social legitimacy of the intelligence services.

The legislative framework that regulates the activity of the intelligence services lays down that they carry out only activities of gathering relevant intelligence in the area of national security, without the possibility of performing criminal investigations and taking the measure of detention or placing into custody. In all situations where notice is taken of the existence of a threat to Romania’s national security, the intelligence services request from the prosecutor’s office, abiding by the provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code, to authorize the carrying out of surveillance, in order to gather relevant intelligence.

Through the conferred attributes and the methods of carrying them out, the intelligence services are institutions of the rule of law. In this respect they have defined their strategic orientations and the priority goals that are full in keeping with those of the internal and external policy of the Romanian State: democratic society, performing market economy, integration into the Euro-Atlantic structures.

In exercising their legal attributes, the intelligence services observe the following principles: full legality; political unpartisanship; objectivity and fairness; timeliness.

Through the specific activities carried out by them, the intelligence services succeed in being at the same time a sensor of the state of legality in the area of national security, by permanently and systematically informing the competent factors to undertake measures in order to reestablish legality each time this is affected. For this purpose, the intelligence services continuously adapt their demarches on the conceptual, structural-organizational, functional and relational level.

The objective evaluation of the problems that Romania is facing in the process of integration into the Euro-Atlantic structures – taking also into account the way these are perceived by the heavyweights in the NATO and EU decision making - cannot be achieved without involving the intelligence services of our country.

Through the data and analyses constantly transmitted to the Romanian authorities, the intelligence services contribute to their timely briefing, by providing the necessary support for adopting the right strategies in order to fulfill the goals of integration.

• The continuous adjustment to the changes of the operational context

The concrete results obtained by the Romanian intelligence services demonstrate that the directions of action and the assumed goals express a modern conception of their aim, a good connectedness to the realities and a dynamic and effective adjustment to the operational environment.

It is permanently sought the streamlining of the capabilities of responding to the new risks and threats to the national security through a coherent effort of reform, that simultaneously aims to ensure some balanced and flexible structures, as well as the optimum management of human resources.

According to the new requirements regarding the national security, the intelligence services have established a new policy of selecting and training their personnel. The new strategy in this area ensures:

• the initial forming and the continuous training of their own personnel in accordance with the missions and goals in the short, medium and long term;
• implementing the methods, the institutional forms and the Euro-Atlantic values in the process of training and improving the personnel’s training.

It is also sought the population’s general training on national security problems, especially that of the personnel working in public administration and of the representatives of civil society.

As a result of the continuous process of reform, the average age of the personnel of the intelligence services is 36 years, with more than 80% of them having been hired after 1990.

• The functional relationship with the other institutions of the national security system

The activity of the intelligence services is organically integrated into the system that renders functional the rule of law.

The Country’s Supreme Defense Council, which the Romanian Constitution mandates to organize and coordinate the national security activities, is permanently informed of the way in which the intelligence services carry out their tasks.

There is also a spirit of real openness in optimizing the cooperation with the other law enforcement agencies. On the basis of the cooperation protocols and depending on the specific responsibilities in safeguarding the national security, information specific to each service is timely conveyed in order to be exploited, corroborated and made use of.

Along with the permanent information of the decision-makers, supporting the national demarche regarding the Euro-Atlantic integration has practically left its mark on all the activities related to the functional relationship between the intelligence services and the other institutions of the Romanian state.

Thus, at the institutional level there have been initiated measures for the implementation of the provisions of the Law on safeguarding classified information. These are in full observance with the responsibilities of the National Security Authority, mandated to carry on specific activities of protecting NATO classified information. The measures are aimed at aligning, on the national plane, the methodologies and procedures in the field of classified information with the NATO standards.

• The democratic oversight of the intelligence services

According to the law, SRI and SIE are each reviewed by the Romanian Parliament through Permanent Joint Commissions of the House of Deputies and the Senate.

The Commissions are authorized to check whether their activities comply with the provisions of the Constitution and other laws, as well as the way in which either of them implement their budget and their budgetary execution.

Annually or whenever necessary, the directors of the intelligence services submit activity reports to the legislative authority.

From the legal point of view, the activity of the intelligence services is also reviewed by the judicial bodies. The activities involving temporary restraining of the basic rights and freedoms of citizens may only be carried out after prior approval of a prosecutor especially appointed by the General Prosecutor of Romania. Any citizen who considers his / her rights or liberties are infringed upon on account of the approval of the prosecutor may submit a complaint to the next hierarchic level of the one which issued the approval.

In compliance with the provisions of the Law no. 187 / 1999 regarding the access to one’s own Securitate file and the exposure of Securitate as a political police, SRI and SIE continue the process of delivering the documents stipulated by law and taken over from the former intelligence bodies to the National Council for the Study of the Securitate Archives.

• Preventing and fighting terrorism – priority task of the intelligence services

The National Security Strategy of Romania includes terrorism among the main threats to national security. Preventing and fighting – including through intensified international cooperation – the risks and threats in this field are a major goal of the Romanian state.

In compliance with the national regulations in this field and the international commitments of our country, as well as the ones which refer to the goal of meeting the NATO and European Union standards, the Romanian intelligence services are constantly carrying out specific activities in order to prevent and fight all the manifestations of the terrorist phenomenon and its related activities.

Apart from the already existing legislation on safeguarding national security from the terrorist threat, the Romanian Government passed, after September 11, 2001, three Emergency Ordinances regarding: penalising terrorist acts and public order violations; implementing the Resolution no. 1373 / 2001 of the UN Security Council on fighting international terrorism; preventing and combating the use of financial-banking system for financing terrorist activities.

SRI and SIE, along with the other state institutions and bodies, have acted first and foremost for supporting, through specific activities, Romania’s demarches aimed at actively joining the international anti-terror campaign, including by carrying on activities in cooperation with counterpart structures in other countries.

The characteristics of the domestic situation from the terrorist threats point of view reveal that in Romania there are no terrorist groups or manifestations (in the full meaning of the word) of domestic origin. The risk sources are:

• External developments that can influence the dynamics of the terrorist organizations represented in Romania by cells which, although in this stage they do not carry on terrorist attacks against facilities in Romania, can change this attitude in the future;

• Activities related to terrorism (illegal migration, transborder organized criminality etc.), carried out by cells of the terrorist organizations or other foreign and local groups.

The analysis of the recent terrorist acts in the USA shows the need to set up and make operational an inter-institutional mechanism for preventing and fighting terrorism through national demarches and international cooperation.

Following its assignment as national authority in the area of anti-terrorism, the Romanian Intelligence Service has coordinated the process of mapping out the National Strategy for Preventing and Fighting Terrorism.

It has also been drawn-up and it is operational the Cooperation Plan between the Romanian Intelligence Service and the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Defense, the Foreign Intelligence Service, the Guard and Protection Service and the Special Telecommunications Service.

In the process of structuring the anti-terror system on the national plane, as early as December 1, 2001, the Department for Preventing and Fighting Terrorism began working within the Romanian Intelligence Service. It is in charge of planning, organizing and conducting, in a unitary conception, the activities of preventing, exposing, neutralizing and annihilating terrorist attacks in Romania. In its turn, SIE has concentrated all its specialized human resources in a distinct directorate which deals exclusively with counter-terrorism.

The strategy of this department aims at efficiently protecting the national territory against the new manifestations of terrorism and ensuring the conceptual-institutional and organizational inter-operability in cooperating with the foreign partner services. It aims to combat each and every form of terrorism – irrespective of its motivations, with a view to preventing terrorist acts in Romania, and the building of logistical bases and subsidiaries of internationally represented terrorist-extremist organizations.

• The cooperation with similar foreign services

The Romanian intelligence services have adapted to the realities of the operational context, being aware that ever more threats are characterized by diversification and globalization and they can only be controlled by joining the efforts and expertise of several similar bodies. It has strengthened the cooperation relations on various topics of interest with counterpart structures in democratic states.

The goals pursued through this inter-relationship are subject, first of all, to the fundamental interests of national security and, at the same time, to backing the active involvement of Romania in creating an appropriate security climate on the regional and Euro-Atlantic level: the specific support of Romania’s integration demarches; preventing, through cooperation, various categories of transborder threats, as well as other types of manifestations which affect the interests of the states; harmonizing the legislation and the functional mechanisms which operate in the area of national security with those implemented by the member states of the Euro-Atlantic community.

The actions undertaken within the international cooperation have proven the expertise and the substantial potential for action of the Romanian intelligence services for:

• keeping under control, domestically, those risk-posing developments and non-military transborder threats which could endanger both our and other countries’ security;

• recognizing Romania as an international player with the vocation and effective capacity to manifest itself as a stability pole – absolutely necessary to maintain the balance both in South East Europe and on the continent;

• supporting with specific means the partnership on broad issues, having strategic implications of common interest for Romania and the Euro-Atlantic countries.

The external cooperation represents a fundamental requirement for the success of Romania’s demarches of Euro-Atlantic integration. The critical commentaries, the suggestions and opinions received in this respect are important elements for justifying the measures and demarches made by the Romanian decision-makers.

• The intelligence services – active factor in Romania’s demarches for NATO integration

The Romanian intelligence services have constantly made their contribution to cementing a flexible mechanism of communication and cooperation between the national institutions in charge of Euro-Atlantic integration. They are part of the National Commission for Romania’s Integration into NATO and make a substantive contribution to attaining the goals stipulated in the National Annual Plan for Preparing the Integration into NATO (MAP), particularly under Chapter IV (security problems).

In this sense, special importance has been placed on implementing the security regulations on safeguarding classified information in compliance with the NATO standards. Measures have also been taken for protective security, by joining them to those related to preventing and fighting terrorist acts, in cooperation with the specialized structures of NATO or of member / partner states.

The main goals assumed through the three MAP cycles have been implemented, respectively:

• setting up the National Security Authority (NSA) and making it operational;

• passing the Law on safeguarding classified information;

• establishing structures which are specialized on NATO classified information, within the state institutions in charge of protective security;

• creating the INFOSEC Inter-department Work Group;

• initiating and undertaking activities of public information with a view to offering a security education in the area of legislative, executive and civil society;

• establishing cooperation relations with similar structures in the NATO member states.

The conclusions drawn at this stage regarding the readiness of the Romanian intelligence services from the point of view of NATO integration can be summed up in the following way:

• Romania is a country that belongs to the “NATO mentality”, including through her intelligence services, as she proved during the crisis triggered by the September 11, 2001 events, when she acted as a “de facto” member of the Alliance;

• the Romanian intelligence services are compatible with the NATO standards, from the perspective of “common threats, common principles and common values”;

• the dangers and threats to our country are common with those of NATO;

• by including Romania and her intelligence services, NATO will gain a plus of security, as the professionalism of the Romanian services adds to the security on the whole of the Alliance from the operational capacity and cooperation point of view.

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Romania’s invitation to join NATO is one of the most complex and difficult goals that our country has ever pursued during her history. From this point of view, the “Prague moment”, November 2002, should not be perceived as a benchmark depending on which Romanian might reassess or reorient her strategic options of foreign policy and security. These options are clear and the integration into NATO, as well as joining the European Union are goals that Romania has irreversibly assumed.

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NOTE : The above presentation has been drown up in cooperation with the Romanian Intelligence Service (SRI)

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