Securityarchives Portal

The annual conference of The European Network, 2025, Warsaw, Poland

The annual conference of The European Network of Official Authorities in Charge of the Secret-Police Files 30 September - 2 October 2025

I Agenda

30 September (Tuesday)

Day I proceedings

18:00–20:00 Organisational meeting and dinner at IPN - Centralny Przystanek Historia

1 October (Wednesday)

Day II proceedings

IPN Centralny Przystanek Historia, ul. Marszałkowska 107, Warszawa

9:30–12:00 Conference - first panel discussions

9:30–10:00 Welcome speech and presentations by Dr. Karol Polejowski, IPN deputy president and Ms. Marzena Kruk, IPN Archive director

10:00–10:40 Special guest presentation by Prof. Andrzej Nowak, Polish historian and Sovietologist – The Empire and Archives

English captions are available for this recording

10:40–11:20 Special guest presentation by Mr. Jens Boel, chair of the Archives and Human Rights section in the International Council on Archives (ICA/SAHR) – Archives and Human Rights – A Close Relationship

11:20–12:00 Special guest presentation by Mr. Kim Nak Jim, deputy director of the War Memorial of Korea in Seoul –Korea War Memorial Organization

12:00–13:00 Lunch break

13:00–15:00 Second panel discussions– workshops for Network members only

13:00–13:30 Dr. Witold Bagieński – Perspectives and Difficulties in Researching Archival Documentation on Eastern Bloc Security Services Cooperation

13:30–14:00 Marek Dąbrowski – The European Network Website, Current and Potential Online Activities

14:00–15:00 Discussion concerning Network activities, work proposals, and plans for the future

16:00–18:00 Visit to the Cold War Museum (Muzeum Zimnej Wojny)

19:00 – 21:00 Dinner

2 October (Thursday)

Day III proceedings

The IPN Archive, ul. Kłobucka 21, Warszawa

10:30–11:30 Summary, final conclusions, handover of the Presidency, and farewells

11:30–13:00 Visit to the IPN Archive

13:00 – 14:00 Lunch

II Participants

1) Sofi Noti, AIDSSH, Albania

2) Manjola Bici, AIDSSH, Albania

3) Plamen Kostov, COMDOS, Bulgaria

4) Toivo Jullinen, RA, Estonia

5) Gergő Bendegúz Cseh, ABTL, Hungary

6) Gints Zelmenis, LNA, Latvia

7) Mădălin Vasile Hodor, CNSAS, Romania

8) Dr. Laura Cornea, CNSAS, Romania

9) Marzena Kruk, IPN, Poland

10) Dr. Witold Bagieński, IPN, Poland

11) Marek Dąbrowski, IPN, Poland

12) Jerguš Sivoš, ÚPN, Slovakia

13) Peter Mikle, ÚPN Slovakia

14) Szymon Żmijewski, IPN, Poland (minutes secretary)

III Key Conclusions

At the annual ENOACSPF Conference held in Warsaw on October 1-2 2025 the members of the Network made the following arrangements:

The Council and Executive Board have been appointed for better supervision of Network’s projects. The Council is a decision-making body and the Executive Board is a practical working group.
1. The Council includes the current, past, and incoming President of the Network.
2. The Executive Board’s members are to be announced later. The Board is comprised of workers experienced in the subjects related to the Network.
The Network decided to share more documents regarding bilateral and multilateral cooperation between the countries of the Warsaw Pact on the Soviet‑Bloc archives portal (www.sovietblocksecurity.eu).
1. Moreover, members agreed to merge the above-mentioned Soviet‑Bloc archives portal with the Network’s website (www.securityarchives.eu) to facilitate the access to secret‑police records to the researchers.
2. Dr. Witold Bagieński (IPN, Poland) was unanimously appointed to lead the document upgrade project. Dr. Bagieński is to prepare an implementation plan (agenda) for this project by the end of November 2025.
3. CNSAS (Romania) joined the working group for this project, and the ABS (Czech Republic) joined in absentia, nominated by ÚPN (Slovakia).
4. Marek Dąbrowski (IPN, Poland) will be responsible for transferring the content of the Soviet-Bloc archives website to the Network’s website.
The Network decided to develop an Institutional Guide Project which is a public publication about the member institutions of the Network. It is meant to gather all the necessary information in one place about the member institutions for the sake of simplicity and convenience. This project is lead by CNSAS (Romania) and also comprises of ÚPN (Slovakia), IPN (Poland), and SUA (Germany).

Moreover, the Network agreed to increase its activity online. IPN (Poland) encouraged members to prepare an entry in Wikipedia in their languages about the Network.

In the end, IPN (Poland) formally handed over the rotating leadership in the Network to Romania’s CNSAS.

Also, Interest from non-member archives was noted. Kazakhstan and Moldova have expressed willingness to participate in the meetings, and the Network agreed to invite them (and other interested countries such as Georgia) to next year’s conference in Romania.