Since the end of World War II, Italian intelligence agencies have been reorganized many times in an attempt to increase their effectiveness and bring them more fully under civilian control. The committee was established as part of a broader reform of the Italian intelligence community, which represented the latest in a long string of government attempts to effectively manage Italy's intelligence agencies. • In 1977, with Legislative Act n.801 of 24/10/1977, this came after a former chief of
SID,
Vito Miceli, was arrested for "conspiration against the state" (
Golpe Borghese), and the intelligence agencies were reorganized in a democratic attempt. This re-organization mainly consisted of: • The split of
SID, the intelligence agency at that time, into two separate agencies with different roles:
SISDE (the domestic one) and
SISMI (the military one). • The creation of
CESIS, with a coordination role between the two intelligence agencies and the
Presidency of the Council of Ministers. • The creation of the Parliamentary Committee, COPACO, to oversee the activities of the two agencies. • Since 1 August 2007, with Legislative Act n.124 of 08/03/2007, following the reform of the Italian intelligence agencies, SISDE, SISMI and CESIS were replaced respectively by
AISI,
AISE and
DIS; the COPACO was renamed COPASIR (Comitato Parlamentare per la Sicurezza della Repubblica, Parliamentary Committee for the Security of the Republic) and granted additional oversight and control powers. == Mission ==