RSS
President Iohannis: National security laws must guarantee individual rights and freedoms
President Klaus Iohannis says national security laws must be drafted in a way that guarantees the individual rights and freedoms.
According to the head of state, the current legislation on security must be updated and new laws must be added.
"I don't mean just laws on fighting terrorism or on the secret services, but also laws on the organization of the Army, on the implementation of the National Strategy for Country's Defence. (...) Updated, clear and stable legislation is needed, which also generates predictability in this field," he said.
He announced on Wednesday that he has proposed to parliamentary parties to set up a special committee in the Parliament to draft a package of national security laws.
The President mentioned after two days of political consultations that his proposal concerns a second package of laws on national security; the talks covered a first package, comprising the law on fighting terrorism, the one on the prepaid phone cards, and the cyber-security law.
"The second package is way bigger. The legislation in the national security field is enough broad and complicated. The second package comprises laws that are at least as important, but are not yet in an advanced stage. Some of those are based on some thinking; for others a first updating draft exists, while nothing is yet available for others, but we need to update them," Iohannis added.
According to the president, the committee would also include specialists from the government, "from institutions called to draft these bills."
"The drafts should be prepared so that in 2017 most of these laws can be updated. This approach has some definite advantages that were understood and accepted by everybody. In this special committee, the parties will send their people capable of (...) discussing about national security. These people will certainly be among those who most probably will find themselves on the lists for the future Parliament, and this way we'll have a big chance to solve two things: the professionalization of the MPs dealing with the national security laws and the setup of continuity from this Parliament to the next one, because a great part of the MPs who start working on the package of laws this fall will probably find themselves in the Parliament resulting from [this year's] elections," Iohannis explained.
He stressed that the national security is a "sensitive field, therefore those who draft legislation must be experts."This way, we'll have the chance of an improved legislation assumed by a broad part of the political class, aware and accepted by the civil society," he added.
The President said that the talks he had with the officials of the parliamentary groups did not refer to the contents of the laws, but to the way to approaching the national security legislation as a whole.
"We have, on the one hand, the first package to be drafted soon enough, and this year we'll already have the laws finalized, thus giving the institutions a framework where they have the possibility to act very firm and prompt; and the second package to be worked on starting this year with a continuation next year, that will allow modernizing the entire legislation," he reasoned.
În his opinion, the first package of national security laws could be adopted in June by both Parliament Chambers.
"The Prime Minister assured me that these three laws [on anti-terror security, cyber security and prepaid mobile phone cards] will go through the entire governmental and public consultation procedure, so that at the end of May they can be sent to Parliament as legislative initiatives. From the discussions with the parties we reached the conclusion that the completion of these laws in this parliamentary session is feasible. The Government sends the laws at the end of May and, if everybody collaborates, in June they can be passed by both Parliament Chambers," Iohannis said at the Cotroceni Palace.
According to him, "everybody has accepted these things."