10th meeting on the Heads of the South East Europe National Security Authorities, members of the Regional Cooperation Council

Posted on 07 Dec 2020 14:32:34

On 27^th of November 2020 the 10^th anniversary meeting on the Heads of the South East Europe National Security Authorities, members of the Regional Cooperation Council were held. The conference was hosted by the State Commission on Information Security, with the assistance of the Regional Cooperation Council.

The participants were executives and representatives from NSA of the Republic of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Republic of Bulgaria, the Hellenic Republic, the Republic of North Macedonia, the Republic of Moldova, the Republic of Slovenia, the Republic of Serbia, Montenegro and the Regional Cooperation Council.

The meeting began with a welcoming speech by SCIS Chairperson Boris Dimitrov and the Head of the Political Department of the Regional Cooperation Council Amer Kapetanovic. In the unusual situation, posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, both pointed out the necessity for cooperation in all fields of all public life, including in the field of classified information protection, considering that the security is a collective process with a collective responsibility. They empathized the importance of the SEENSA format as a useful instrument for the development of the regional cooperation between South East Europe National Security Authorities in the field of classified information protection and they expressed gratitude to all NSAs for their effort in the past 10 years, for their dedication and active participation in the various SEENSA initiatives.

The conclusions that came as a result of the discussions were:

• Joint agreement of the SEENSA members on document “Joint Statement for cooperation in the field of personnel and industrial security of classified information”, which will be used as a groundwork for the future cooperation in SEENSA.
• Adopting a document on the minimal standards for training of employees with access to classified information, with the idea of developing common minimal standards for training in the field of classified information protection. Their practical implementation is forthcoming, considering the existing national programs in the field, as recommendations in that sphere will be given by the next SEENSA host.

The 11^th SEENSA meeting in 2021 in “Principals” format will be hosted by the NSA of Bosnia and Herzegovina.