site.btaAtanas Atanasov: Merger of Intelligence Services Will Be Raised Again after Local Elections 

After the local elections on October 29 a merger of the intelligence services will be raised again, Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB) co-leader Atanas Atanassov told journalists in Varna on Saturday.

According to him, a merger of the civilian and military intelligence is very likely. He said that because of the local elections there were issues but that they may be overcome. “This week we sponsored two bill which are to do with the governance of the security sector, but I withheld that about the single intelligence service for tactical reasons,” said Atanassov. 

He explained that the idea is to apply the German model. According to him, Germany has a single intelligence service and it is very efficient. “For years Bulgaria has had a single counterintelligence service, the State Agency for National Security and the same should happen with the intelligence services,” said Atanassov. He said that they should preserve their internal autonomy because they have different tasks and that the intelligence data should be well analyzed and systematized for the purposes of the executive.