The Head of the EU Delegation and EU Special Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina Ambassador Johann Sattler and Chief Prosecutor of the Bijeljina District Public Prosecutor’s Office Olga Pantić, officially opened the new building of the District Public Prosecutor’s Office in Bijeljina, which was funded by the European Union with over 1.3 million euros. During the official visit to Bijeljina, the Ambassador Sattler met with representatives of local authorities and emphasized the importance of the European Union’s continued support for the strengthening of public administration institutions as well as the judiciary.
“This is my third opening of judicial facilities in the past few weeks. I was at the opening of the courts in Mrkonjić Grad and Prnjavor, and here today also in Bijeljina. This support is an indication that the European Union is certainly the strongest and the most generous partner of Bosnia and Herzegovina. We allocated more than one million euros for this facility, and in the past ten years, the EU has secured more than fifty million euros for 32 judicial facilities throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina. However, apart from the financial support, what is most important and what is the essence of the European Union, the European idea and European integrations is the improvement of people’s lives”, said ambassador Sattler, stressing that better working conditions will contribute to better work results of the employees of the District Public Prosecutor’s Office of Bijeljina.
The Minister of Justice of Republika Srpska, Miloš Bukejlović, said: “Today we are symbolically marking twenty years of the establishment of the District Public Prosecutor’s Office and the moving into new facilities with great ambitions but also the responsibilities that come with such a large project to be even more efficient and achieve even better results.”
The chief prosecutor of the District Public Prosecutor’s Office in Bijeljina Olga Pantić, expressed her gratitude to the European Union for providing better and more modern conditions for the work of employees in the judiciary and added that she hopes that current and future employees will be able to perform their duties as efficiently as possible.
The support of the European Union is part of the comprehensive and continuous support for the improvement of the working environment and security of the facilities of judicial institutions. The building of the District Public Prosecutor’s Office in Bijeljina is one of 32 courts and prosecutor’s offices in 17 cities throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina that have been constructed or reconstructed by the European Union with the aim of increasing the efficiency of the judiciary and ensuring adequate services to the citizens of BiH.
In addition to measures to support judicial reform, the European Union has provided more than 50 million euros in grants for the construction and reconstruction of facilities in the judicial sector, courts, prosecutor’s offices, prisons and detention facilities from 2003 until today.
