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President of the Senate Calin Popescu-Tariceanu stated on Wednesday that the cut in the Romanian Intelligence Service (SRI) budget represents an important signal, that also says the legislation needs to be amended, so that the SRI returns to its strictly constitutional framework.
"I don't know how it will remain [the SRI budget], but certainly, it is an important signal, which the SRI must take as it is. The budget cut is not the result of a whim, but the result of the hypertrophy of this institution and in terms of the budget and expenditures which are born by taxpayers and in terms of the staff, not to mention some activities in the past which exceeded the constitutional framework. In a discussion that I carried out with the SRI Director, he admitted that the wiretapping activity doesn't belong within the SRI. Same as other activities. Therefore, the quick amendment of the existing legislation is needed so that the SRI returns to the strictly constitutional framework, which is ensuring internal security, the functioning of the institutions. The function, let's say, predominantly of counter-intelligence which any internal service has, and not other matters, such as the protection of airports and so on, which the SRI provides today," Tariceanu told a press conference held at Parliament.
He mentioned that the SRI has a "totally obsolete" organisational structure, which entails "a surplus of personnel."
"We should all understand that some recalibration efforts are needed. I've see that even the SRI Spokesperson refers to a totally and utterly obsolete structure and which entails a surplus of personnel, that we all feel in the budgets which increased over the past years. Basically, over the last five years, if I'm not mistaken, the SRI budget has doubled," he stated.
Tariceanu also replied to President Klaus Iohannis's statement, who argued that the 2019 state budget "has been hastily put together, based on unrealistic economic projections" and on ""political crony appropriations."
"I believe that the President should take into account the will of the legislative body, he should take into account the necessity that the budget be adopted as quickly as possible and I hope that this policy and attitude that he had over the last period will come to an end," the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats (ALDE) leader stated.
On Tuesday, Parliament's Budget-finance Committees issued a favorable report on the SRI budget, adopting a cut by 150 million compared to the draft submitted by the Government.
