Minister of Security of BiH Dragan Mektic confirmed that our country will sign very important contract with the European Police Office Europol very soon.
BiH managed to achieve the agreement on operational support and cooperation with EUROPOL last year, but it was never signed. Although this should have happened recently, the Presidency of BiH, which was supposed to approve the signing of the agreement, requested the opinion of all 10 cantons in accordance with the newly adopted mechanism of coordination, which delayed signing of the agreement.
“At the next session of the Council of Ministers the agreement will be confirmed, because we got positive opinion from all cantons. When we definitely confirm that we finished everything from our side, we will inform Europol central in The Hague, so that we can expect the signing of definitive agreement soon, because they have the interest and so do we,” emphasized Mektic.
By signing this Agreement, BiH will become part of the European police force, and our country will have a permanent officer in the headquarters of Europol.
Head of the EU Delegation to BiH and EU Special Representative, Ambassador Lars-Gunnar Wigemark also expressed interest to attend the signing of this agreement, as confirmed by Mektic, and the interest of the European Commission confirmed that this might happened soon, which urged BiH to harmonize the agreement before signing.
The signing of this agreement includes the operational and technical cooperation with the headquarters of Europol, and BiH can be a part of investigative teams of Europol when it comes to fight against terrorism.
(Source: S. H./Klix.ba)