PRESS STATEMENTS BY MR. CEZAR PREDA, CHAIRMAN OF THE JOINT STANDING COMMITTEE OF THE CHAMBER OF DEPUTIES AND THE SENATE FOR THE EXERCISE OF PARLIAMENTARY CONTROL OVER SIE, AND MR. MIHAI-RĂZVAN UNGUREANU, SIE DIRECTOR,

following the meeting of the Joint Standing Committee of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate for the Exercise of Parliamentary Control over the Activity of the Foreign Intelligence Service

- october 14, 2008 -

MIHAI-RĂZVAN UNGUREANU: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. This was the last meeting between the Committee for the Exercise of Parliamentary Control over the Activity of the Foreign Intelligence Service and the SIE leadership. I will ask Mr. Cezar Preda to inform you on the topics of our meeting today. Please, Mr. Chairman.

CEZAR PREDA: Thank you for your kindness. As the Minister has just said, today’s meeting was aimed to review, apart from the last issues on the Committee’s approved agenda for 2008, the SIE’s budget execution. And this is because one of our tasks as a parliamentary control committee, is, apart from managing the situations the Service deals with, to validate the budget execution, as stipulated and delegated by the Committee. There is a financial management and budget execution discharge provided by the Court of Audit that states in its report that there were no irregularities in the budget execution.

As for the issues tackled in our last meeting, I could mention the aftermath of the Russian-Georgian conflict, the events taking place in the Euro-Atlantic realm and the SIE’s increasing responsibilities in the Euro-Atlantic geopolitical space. Furthermore, we had talks about tasking the Foreign Intelligence Service to contribute to the major decisions made in the Romanian economic environment which have an impact on our position in Europe - first of all, in terms of energy, but not only. I believe we have cooperated well with the new leadership of the Foreign Intelligence Service. Both I and the members of the Committee believe that we have successfully managed the issues that you, as media representatives, have brought to the public attention. I believe we have also succeeded in managing the tensions with regard to the way we acted when managing human rights issues or representing Romania abroad. In this matter we have talked about the hostage crisis, what our cooperation with other foreign intelligence services means. Being a parliamentary committee, I believe, in my capacity as Chairman, that this committee has performed well. Besides its intrinsic discretion, it has also been efficient in terms of adopting a pragmatic approach to each and every matter. We are aware that our Committee has not been very visible in the media, but the fact that we did not have any problems and we came up with good results means this cooperation has been very effective. I wish the new Committee due to be set up after the November elections to be efficient and have good cooperation with the Foreign Intelligence Service. And the reason I say this is that, I think, in my capacity as Chairman, that the future of Romania abroad, both in terms of parliamentary diplomacy and economic efficiency, depends to a great extent on the cooperation between the legislative and executive structures of the intelligence services.

I would like to thank my colleagues from the SIE for our cooperation. These people have tried hard to render Romania efficient in terms of foreign intelligence services. I assure you that, at least within the parliamentary committee, the cooperation between the Committee’s members - belonging to different parties - has been very effective.

In the end, I would like to refer to the place of the Committee for oversight of SIE activities has in Europe. The way we conduct our parliamentary oversight is similar with that of other consolidated democracies, which confirms that we are on the right track.

I would like to thank you as well for your objectiveness, for presenting in an accurate and less dramatic manner the problems we have faced. I assure you that, from our viewpoint, the parliamentary oversight is as it should be in a consolidated democracy.

MIHAI-RĂZVAN UNGUREANU: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just a short remark on behalf of the SIE regarding our cooperation. I believe it has been one of the best confirmations of cross-institutional dialogue. Throughout these four years, the Joint Standing Committee for the Exercise of Parliamentary Control over the Activity of the Foreign Intelligence Service has been wise and tactful in managing the relation with the Foreign Intelligence Service. I am glad that there have been no unanswered questions in our dialogue. I am also glad that Mr. Chairman Preda has always been open to our needsand has offered us support whenever different legislation projects or logistic requests required parliamentary support. This guarantees that the Foreign Intelligence Service takes the relation with Romania’s parliament very seriously and that its constitutional role is fulfilled appropriately.

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