A delegation of the Committee on Defence and Security paid a visit to Germany from 1 to 5 June 2003. The visit, organised by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, was devoted to visiting police and intelligence bodies, meeting deputies who sit on related Bundestag committees, and visiting the German foreign ministry.

During a visit to the Ministry of the Interior of the state of Bavaria, the deputies were acquainted with statistics showing a decline in criminal activity of 1.3% compared to the same period the previous year. The data also show that the percentage of crimes perpetrated by unknown individuals that are solved in Bavaria is as much as 63% (Germany’s highest percentage), while the German average is 50%. Twelve million people live in Bavaria, the Ministry of the Interior employs about 38.500, while the budget for 2002 amounted to some 2.2 billion Euro, which is about seven times as much as the budget of the Serbian Ministry of the Interior.

The delegation also visited the directorate of the Federal Intelligence Service (BND), where talks centred on the method of work and key fields of activity, as well as on the means of internal and parliamentary control over the Service. A concept of parliamentary control was presented, consisting of budgetary control, control of work legality and control of implementation of measures (TKTP…). Members of the Committee for the control of the work of the Federal Intelligence Service must pass a security clearance check and sign an obligatory non-disclosure agreement. The entire control system is based on the German Act on the parliamentary control body.

During a visit to the German Federal Foreign Ministry, members of the delegation held talks with the Ministry’s policy director, Michael Schaefer, who expressed his conviction that Germany would do everything in her power to improve security in Kosovo and Metohia. The delegation insisted that the German side should exert its influence to prevent a reduction in the number of KFOR and UNMIK personnel in Kosovo and Metohia.

Members of the delegation met Bundestag members, and, on another occasion, members of the German-Serbian deputies’ group. On that occasion, Parliamentary State Secretary Fritz Rudolf Koerper expressed his conviction that the German Federal Ministry of the Interior would continue to offer assistance to the Serbian Ministry of the Interior.