Multinational industrial security working group (MISWG)

MISWG was established in 1985 as non-governmental structure in order to facilitate the joint military programs among NATO Members, by laying down international standards.

The statute of this working group was adopted in the next year – 1986, during the meeting in Belgium. Then it was decided by the participants that this would be an informal structure and they adopted its name – Multinational Industrial Security Working Group (MISWG). It was decided that in MISWG would participate representatives of the National Security Authorities of the countries and also that the rules that would be approved would not be mandatory but each country would decide whether to adopt them in their legislation.

MISWG does not have permanent structure or permanent secretariat. The obligations of Secretariat are fulfilled by the country hosting the meeting in the respective year. The representative of the host country is also the Chair of the annual meeting.

Bulgaria has been participating as full member since 2004. On behalf of Bulgaria the State Commission on Information Security (SCIS) participates, as the Commission is the National Security Authority of the state.

MISWG holds its meetings once a year and the meetings are held on the territory of different participating country. Second meeting could be carried out under exceptional circumstances in case of substantial reasons for such event.

Ad hoc working groups can be established for resolving specific cases. Each of these ad hoc working groups has a Chair who is the representative of the country which will present a report of the results of the activities during the MISWG meeting.

The role of MISWG is to achieve equivalent practices and rules in the field of security and they can be implemented in the bilateral and multilateral industrial programs involving exchange of classified or sensitive unclassified information. MISWG represents a forum for discussion of the ways to adapt to the constant changes in the field of security, defence industry, as well as to develop mutually acceptable procedures in order to facilitate the international co-operation in defence and industry.

STANDARD INTERNATIONAL VISIT PROCEDURES

When an international visit involves access to information subject to government approval or when access to security areas is necessary, a visit request will be submitted by the visitor through his/her security officer, certifying/requesting NSA/DSA and receiving NSA/DSA to agency, organization, or facility to be visited. These visits request are formalized in the standard Request for Visit (RFV) procedure.

The attached standard procedures have been approved by the MISWG participants for the visits by military, government, international organisations, and contractor personnel to military, government, international organisations (e.g. NATO, EU, etc.), or industrial facilities of another country.

Notwithstanding the procedures agreed NSAs/DSAs may for national security reasons refuse a RFV for a visit to one of its facilities.

MISWG participants:

Australia

Canada

Slovakia

Austria

Latvia

Slovenia

Albania

Lithuania

Turkey

Belgium

Luxembourg

Hungary

Bulgaria

The Netherlands

Finland

Germany

New Zealand

France

Greece

Norway

Croatia

Denmark

The United Kingdom

The Czech Republic

Estonia

Poland

Switzerland

Israel

Portugal

Sweden

Spain

Romania

 

Italy

USA

 

Request for Visit (RFV)