OPPOSITION MP Robert Kaliňák from the Smer party has submitted to parliament a draft amendment to the law on the Slovak Intelligence Service (SIS).
According to the draft, the head of the SIS would be elected by parliament. Currently, the cabinet names and recalls the top SIS representative.
Kaliňák's draft also aims to narrow the powers of the service, the Slovak daily SME wrote on January 7. The SIS counterintelligence unit would, for example, no longer monitor organised crime in the country; instead, it would concentrate on fighting terrorism.
According to Kaliňák, the SIS currently performs many functions that the police also perform, and he wants to eliminate the overlap.
SIS spokesman Vladimír Šimko said that the intelligence service, together with the Defence Ministry, has prepared a completely new law on the SIS. Therefore, he considers any amendments to the current SIS legislation to be unnecessary.
