The Commission for Control over the Security Services has adopted the annual activity report of the State Intelligence Agency (SIA) for 2025, with five votes "in favor", four "abstentions", and zero votes "against".
During the meeting, Atanas Atanasov from "Democratic Bulgaria" (DB) drew attention to a study published in the French magazine "Express". In it, 60 former and current heads of intelligence services from NATO and EU member states ranked the SIA at zero. The head of the agency, Antoine Gechev, commented on these results, noting that the selection methodology was: "identify and rank the top five services in Europe". According to him, the fact that Bulgarian services do not appear in the top five does not rule out the possibility that they were ranked sixth, seventh, or eighth. "Obviously, no one put the Bulgarian services in the top five, but that does not mean they were not placed sixth, seventh, or eighth," Gechev added.
Another topic raised by Atanas Atanasov (DB) was the redistribution of additional financial incentives for SIA personnel. The head of the agency, Antoine Gechev, responded that these changes in incentives are not directly related to funds that remained unused due to vacant positions.