ABSTRACT
After extensive debate the Hungarian Parliament enacted in 1995 a comprehensive Act on National Security, consolidating the existing network of intelligence agencies. Act CXXV of 1995 made no fundamental change to the structure which had been in force since a government decree in 1990, with one remarkable exception. The new law separated the Special Service for National Security from the National Security Office, transforming the latter into an independent agency. This left five separate services responsible for national security, with the possible addition, in the near future, of one more agency to co-ordinate the community and to fulfil new demands coming from the country’s recent NATO membership.
