As of September, Bosnia and Herzegovina should have full strategic and operative cooperation with the EUROPOL. Minister of Security of BiH Dragan Mektić should have signed this important agreement already in July in Hague, but the signing of the agreement was prolonged to September.
If the agreement between EUROPOL and BiH comes to life in full capacity, that means that all operational data of European polices will be available to BiH as well. Those operational data refer to terrorism, drug crime, car mafia, human trafficking, cybercrime and other forms of crime, including personal information. BiH will be obliged to make the same information available to colleagues from EUROPOL, i.e. to polices of the member countries of EUROPOL.
The strategic cooperation between BiH and EUROPOL already exists, and within the framework of this cooperation the two parties exchange information of strategic and technical character. However, that exchange does not involve the exchange of much more important information – personal data.
In early December 2014, negotiations were led between BiH and EUROPOL. During those negotiations, the text of the Agreement that Mektić should take to Hague was harmonized. The negotiating team of BiH consisted of experts from the Minsitry of Defense of BiH, members of entity ministries of internal affairs, members of the police from Brčko, from SIPA, from the Border Police and a representative of the Directorate for Coordination of Police Bodies in BiH (DKPT).
Already then, the representative of the DKPT gave a different opinion regarding the selection of the national contact point between BiH and EUROPOL. The contact point is actually the police agency in BiH through which EUROPOL will cooperate with the country.
According to the Agreement that Mektić will sign, that contact point should be on the address Square of BiH 1 in Sarajevo. That decision was reached by the Council of Ministers of BiH on December 11, 2013. Practically, Mektić inherited that decision. However, it is clear that the Council of Ministers of BiH is on that address, not a police agency.
Practically, it should look like this: EUROPOL sends a request for a certain information to the Directorate. The Directorate forwards the request to a relevant police agency in BiH. After the operational information is gathered, the police agency returns the information to the Directorate and the Directorate sends the response to EUROPOL.
After the signing of the Agreement with EUROPOL in September, BiH has two options: one of them is to demand through diplomatic channels the amendment of the annex II of the Agreement, according to which the national contact point for EUROPOL would switch over from the Square of BiH 1 to DKPT, i.e. to the address Aleja Bosne Srebrene bb. The other option is that BiH forms a new police agency on the address Square of BiH 1. The establishment of a new police agency would mean the creation of a police agency with similar jurisdiction as the DKPT and additional millions of BAM from the state budget.
(Source: nap.ba/photo: nap.ba)
