:: The President of the Council of Ministers

The President of the Council of Ministers is the highest political authority responsible for State security. This principle, repeatedly highlighted by the Constitutional Court, has been laid down by the law establishing the intelligence and security services (law n. 801/77). Based on article n.1 of this law, the President of the Council of Ministers is entrusted with «the high supervision, the overall political responsibility and the coordination of the national intelligence and security policy in the interest and for the defence of the democratic State and of the institutions which the Constitution has laid at its foundations».

To carry out these tasks, the President of the Council of Ministers has specific powers, partly delegable to other government authorities: he issues directives and sets forth any provision required to organize and manage the intelligence activities, he oversees the implementation of the criteria for identifying which matters should be protected by State secret and the bodies entrusted with such task; he further ensures the protection of State secret. The President of the Council of Ministers is also the chairman of the Inter-ministerial Committee for intelligence and security (CIIS) and of the executive committee for the Intelligence and security Services (CESIS).

The President of the Council of Ministers shall account to Parliament on his actions in these matters, and in this way the government shall report to Parliament, in a written account, every six months, on Intelligence and Security policy. The President of the Council of Ministers must also inform the Parliamentary Committee for the Intelligence and Security Services and for State secret, with a brief statement outlining the grounds for his decisions, about all instances of confirmation of State secret in a court of law. The President of the Council of Ministers shall give communication to Parliament of all claims to secrecy, including those made to the Committee itself.