Bulgaria Refashions Scandal-Tainted National Security Agency DANS

Bulgaria's PM Borisov (middle) has pushed measures to deliniate clearly the functions of DANS and the Interior Ministry. DANS Director Tsvetlin Yovchev is in the back on the left. Photo by BGNES

Bulgarian Parliament adopted Wednesday at second reading the State National Security Agency (DANS) Act, which reshapes the institution to focus on counter-intelligence and analytical activities.

The changes curb the functions of DANS which has been plagued by spying scandals and classified information leaks since its creation in January 2008 by pooling three previously independent law enforcement institutions.

The main principle on which the new DANS Act is based is avoiding the duplication and contradiction in the functions of DANS and the Interior Ministry. The Agency’s prerogatives are reshaped to shift its focus on national security threats only.

National security is defined by the new law as follows, “National security is a dynamic state of the society which protects the territorial integrity, sovereignty, and constitutionally-founded order of the country are protected; guarantees the democratic functioning of the institutions, the main rights and freedoms of the people, the sustainable economic development and well-being of the population, and allows the state to defend successfully its national interests and to realize its national priorities.”

“Encroachments against the national security are purposeful actions or inactions of persons, groups, or organizations leading to processes or events violating the sustainable condition of the national security of Bulgaria”, the law says.

The new legislation limits the functions of the DANS employees. The agency can no longer use undercover agents, controlled supplies, and trusted deals. Its staff can only arrest persons who encroach upon the security regime of the institution’s establishments. In such instances, the DANS agents are obliged to inform the police, and turn over the detainees to them.

The law bans DANS from using auxiliary devices such as chemical substances and service animals. It formulates clearly the conditions for the exchange of information between DANS and the Interior Ministry.

It further prohibits collaborators or undercover agents of other security services from taking jobs at the Agency.

Within three months of the entering into force of the new law, the Council of Ministers is obliged to amend the statute book for the application of the DANS Act.

According to critics of DANS, the Agency was the brainchild of former Socialist Prime Minister, Sergey Stanishev, and was set up in order to take away certain functions from the Interior Ministry, which in 2005-2008 was headed by Rumen Petkov, Stanishev’s opponent within the Bulgarian Socialist Party.

DANS has been tainted by several scandals including the Galeria case in which its agents spied on leading Bulgarian journalists, and the cases with leaked top secret intelligence reports, which according to the GERB government have been hidden and abused by ex-PM Stanishev.

Both Stanishev and the former DANS Director Petko Sertov are under investigation and may face charges of mishandling classified information.

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