Suca: There Will Be No Joint Session of House Committees on SIS and NBU (2)

Bratislava, February 3 (TASR) - A joint session of the House committees for supervision of the Slovak Intelligence Service (SIS) and of the National Security Authority (NBU), as proposed by the opposition, won't be convened, vice-chair of the committee for the supervision of SIS Peter Suca (Smer-SD) announced on Monday. However, committee member Richard Gluck (Smer-SD) proposed to the opposition that the issue could be discussed instead by the House defence and security committee, which he chairs. "We agreed not to convene such a joint session, as two sessions have never been deliberately held jointly before," stated Suca. "As the issue of cyber-security is important, we'll include it on the agenda of our regular session; moreover, with information that can be presented by the SIS director in person." Suca pointed out that each committee is invested with specific powers. "We, for instance, cannot summon the NBU director, we don't have such a power. The NBU director knows what he's allowed to reveal in front of the Special Committee for the Supervision of NBU and the SIS director knows what he's allowed to reveal in front of ours. I inquired whether this wouldn't lead to a legal pandemonium. Technically, it would be possible if we signed a non-disclosure agreement." Suca conceded that the information on cyber attacks currently at disposal doesn't make it possible to determine unequivocally where the attacks have originated from. "This is still being addressed, hence I wouldn't like to comment on that," he said. As for statements made by Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD), Suca believes that the Prime Minister presented his opinion based on circumstantial evidence at his disposal. Gluck pointed out that a similar topic was discussed by the defence and security committee a few weeks ago. "As there have been new developments regarding this matter, I've offered the opposition the same platform that it requested today at a session of the defence and security committee. That would be much easier than convening two committees," he said. Member of the house committee for supervision of SIS Martin Dubeci (PS) explained the need to have two committees meet jointly by pointing to the current situation and cyber-threats. "We considered such a joint session as a logical and efficient choice but, sadly, our coalition colleagues chose to focus on some formal shortcomings," he stated. However, the opposition will respond to Gluck's proposal. "We'll probably file a motion to convene such a session as early as today," added Dubeci. mf/df