EXCLUSIVE A draft proposal to amend national security law seeks to broaden list of threats to national security to Organised crime, actions targeting the administration system, health, education, cultural heritage, and communications

The list of threats to national security has been significantly extended in the „draft law on intelligence and counterintelligence activities”, which is being debated by the governing coalition and consulted by G4Media.ro. The bill complements a broader package of 10 draft laws on national security.

Thus, in addition to the law in force, organized crime and actions or inactions targeting the administration, health, education, cultural heritage, critical infrastructures in communications and information technology, as well as „national financial, economic and energy, scientific and research interests of Romania” have been included in the category of threats to national security.

In other words, according to the bill, almost all areas of activity fall into the category of potential threats to national security. The expansion of the list gives intelligence services the power to carry out interceptions, recordings, and surveillance on the basis of national security warrants obtained from a judge (so-called MSNs).

By broadening the scope of threats to national security, MSNs can be requested for almost any reason, a criminal law specialist explained for the G4Media.ro.

According to Article 16 of the draft law, the National Intelligence Service (SRI) will address requests for the issuance of MSNs directly to the President of the High Court, without going through the filter of the Prosecutor General’s Office, as before. Thus, the intelligence services risk becoming a genuine prosecuting body again, which was prohibited by a ruling of the Constitutional Court in 2016.

Another article in this bill again allows the secret services to use information obtained under national security warrants as evidence in criminal cases. This too has been prohibited by a series of Constitutional Court decisions.

Thus, Article 21, paragraph 2 of the draft law on intelligence and counterintelligence activities states:

• „If the recordings resulting from specific intelligence-gathering activities involving the restriction of the exercise of fundamental rights and freedoms of citizens, carried out in compliance with the provisions of this Law, are used as evidence in criminal proceedings, the legality of such recordings and of the evidentiary procedures by which the recordings were obtained shall be verified, in the preliminary chamber procedure, by the preliminary chamber judge of the court to which, according to the law, the trial of the case in the first instance is assigned”.

One of the big novelties is the inclusion of organized crime in the category of threats to national security. Organized crime is a real problem, but it has not so far been included in the category of „vulnerabilities” in the European Commission’s assessments, as it is in Bulgaria, for example, as CVM monitoring is extended to the area of organized crime, a criminal law expert told G4Media.ro.

„This means that Romania is putting a red flag on organized crime on its own, so we say we are a mafia state,” he added.

On the other hand, Justice Minister Cătălin Predoiu said two years ago that organized crime is on the rise, the streets are no longer safe, and criminal circles are increasingly aggressive in Romania. Predoiu also said then that the United States, by appointing a special representative to deal with corruption, money laundering, and organized crime, wanted to help us.

Background. The governing coalition is debating draft national security laws, a wider package of laws that cover the functioning and organization of the intelligence services, the army, the interior ministry, and the Supreme Security Council. Prime Minister Nicolae Ciucă announced on 27 May that the drafts are being discussed by each party in the coalition and will be debated by the government in a week’s time before being sent to parliament.

Edited for English by Ovidiu H.