Slovakia will probably merge its two military intelligence services from next year. The Defence Ministry has prepared a draft amendment to the law on military intelligence according to which the Military Intelligence Service (VSS) and the Military Defence Intelligence (VOS) counter-intelligence service will be merged into one unit, to be called Military Intelligence, on January 1, 2013. The amendment is currently undergoing interdepartmental review.
The new text of the draft amendment creates a legislative and technical framework to unite the two units. Complex changes in the functioning of the services should be brought about by a new comprehensive bill on the intelligence services. That bill, according to the authors of the explanatory report attached to it, as quoted by the SITA newswire, will bring more effective control over the intelligence services to prevent leaks of classified material and ensure an improvement in the credibility of the services.
Changes in the functioning of the security services were included in the recently approved programme statement of the Fico government. The VSS is currently focused on gathering intelligence from abroad, while the role of the VOS is to detect and eliminate the activities of foreign intelligence services in Slovakia. Based on the new draft bill, the intelligence and counter-intelligence services would work to a single director, as now occurs in the civilian SIS intelligence service.
Source: SITA
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
