SRI director Eduard Helwig says, citing national security laws that have drawn criticism, that Romanian society and political decision-makers must decide what role they want to assign to the intelligence services: “We cannot be at the same time a kind of firemen, who are called upon to put out fires caused by others, and then charged with putting them out.”

He made the comments on Tuesday during a rare public appearance at the Babes Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca, marking the 15th anniversary of the institution’s beginning to study security and intelligence. On its Facebook page, SRI posted a video of Helwig’s speech with the message: “On democracy, SRI, society, conflict and principles, and the elephant in the room.”

• “I also know that there will be a lot of discussion again about new national security laws. And here I repeat what I have already said: we want updated laws, but we want them to be as close as possible to the Western model (…)
• It would be desirable for Romanian society and political decision-makers to decide what role they want to assign to the intelligence services.
• We cannot simultaneously be a kind of firemen who are called to put out fires started by others and then charged with putting them out. This is actually the elephant in the room, and this discussion cannot be avoided indefinitely,” said the head of the SRI, quoted by News.ro.

In early June, G4Media presented several provisions of the package of national security laws that drew criticism from civil society. Proposed changes to national security laws would give intelligence agencies more powers, create super-immunity for intelligence officials and impose obligations on citizens and businesses to cooperate on demand. G4Media.ro wrote that the government has decided to postpone the national security laws, which will enter the agenda only after the justice and education laws are passed.

When asked in June about these expected changes, President Klaus Iohannis said it was a serious mistake that “someone, and we know who” thought it would be a good “source” of draft national security laws.

Iohannis insisted that there is no reason for concern, as no one wants the restoration of the old security or restrictions on citizens’ rights, and the projects will undergo changes when they come out for public discussion.

“NDI also made mistakes. People from the Research Institute are still referred to as “guards”, which is completely unfair”

Helwig acknowledged that the Service had also made mistakes, saying that he was aware of “the sins of which the institution is accused, some real, some falsely attributed,” just as he knew there was a lot of public mistrust about the number of “covers” and the agenda. to them that “the specter of Security is still attached to the image of the DRI” and that people from the DRI are still spoken of as “guards”, which, in his opinion, is completely unfair.

• “Of course, DRI also made mistakes. A lot, for these 32 years. Correcting mistakes is a complex process that requires time, experience and a lot of effort.
• One boss’s mistake affects an entire department, and often most of the people in that department are honest people.
• Changing people’s opinion about the special service is even more difficult. We try to do it gradually, but it is still not enough. A few of these, made before my mandate, were important mistakes, and no doubt my critics will find many of them during my mandate. I sincerely apologize for them – for everyone, including those who came before me,” Helvig said.

Eduard Helwig says that he also knows that there is a lot of mistrust in society about the number of “people covered” and their agenda in various strategic sectors, that “the specter of Security is still associated with the image of SRI and that mistakes are still made”:

• “They still talk about people from the NDI as bodyguards. This is completely unfair. But those who inhabit this institution today deserve to be spoken about correctly.
• Most of them are young, 30-40 years old, and they learned about the old Securitate from books and archives.”