The Republic of Srpska

Today, in Banja Luka, the Republic of Srpska Minister of the Interior, Mr Dragan Lukač, opened a two-day workshop whose topic is ‘Protection of critical infrastructure: key challenges and solutions’. The workshop is organized with the aim of raising the level of critical infrastructure protection, especially the protection from terrorism. Minister explained that the workshop is connected to the Action plan of the Republic of Srpska Government on fighting against terrorism 2016-2020. ‘Critical infrastructure is everything we possess as institutions in the protection of our systems, such as server systems, various applications and their protection from hackers’ attacks, and protection of all other parts of critical infrastructure that can be attacked by any terrorist or terrorist organisation’, Minister Lukač said. He added that terrorists primarily aim at the parts of infrastructure that are used in any country not only for system functioning and protection, but also everything people use to have normal lifestyle and meet their needs. The aim of the two-day workshop is introducing the best EU practice in the field of critical infrastructure protection and understanding situation, possibility assessment and determining future steps for improving its protection in the Republic of Srpska and BIH. The participants of the workshop will have the opportunity to be introduced with the EU legal framework in the field of critical infrastructure protection, and to exchange their opinions and personal experiences on this issue with experts coming from Greece, Czech Republic, Spain, Latvia and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development and Joint Research Centre of the European Commission. In addition to the members of the Republic of Srpska Ministry of the Interior, representatives of relevant public and private institutions from the Republic of Srpska and BIH, whose functioning is very important for daily social activities, are also participating in the workshop. The Republic of Srpska Ministry of the Interior organised the workshop in cooperation with the Technical Assistance and Information Exchange Instrument - TAIEX.