The topic of the Conference was “Parliamentary control of intelligence-security agencies in the context of data confidentiality systems” and was attended by the representatives of competent parliamentary committees from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Montenegro, Romania and Serbia, as well as guests from the Hungarian parliament.

The Conference, held in Serbia this year, was organised by the National Assembly in cooperation with the OSCE Mission to Serbia and the support of the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF).

The Chairman of the Committee on Defense and Security Dusan Bajatovic greeted the participants of the Conference on the behalf of the Committee, expressing hope that the gathering would help improve cooperation and the adopted practice of parliamentary committees in charge of oversight over security-intelligence agencies.

Opening the Conference, the NARS Speaker Prof. Dr Slavica Djukic-Dejanovic said that a gathering such as this one allows countries in the region to share their experiences in the field of control and oversight of security agencies and reminded that Serbia had introduced two independent authorities - the Ombudsman and Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection, who, among other things, deal with the work of security agencies and protection of human rights.

The participants were addressed by the Deputy Head of the OSCE Mission to Serbia Mr. Thomas Moore who said that the countries in the region share the same problems in the control and oversight over security-intelligence agencies, adding that it was good that Serbia adopted laws which give the Ombudsman and Commissioner more authority to request information form the agencies under certain circumstances.

Deputy Director of the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF) Mr. Philipp Fluri reminded that the centre was founded 11 years ago with the goal to assist the exchange of experiences in the field and today boasts 60 countries of the world.

During the two-day Conference the participants - members of parliamentary committees from Southeast Europe exchanged experiences relating to the approach to and protection of confidential data with various national and international experts in the field.

On the first day the representatives of the parliamentary committees of participating countries exchanged regional experiences in the protection of confidential data and the accessing of confidential data by parliamentary committees in charge of oversight over security-intelligence agencies. The second day saw three sessions on the role of independent state authorities in the parliamentary oversight of security agencies in the context of confidential data.

At the end of the Conference, the participants adopted the following Conclusions.