The Republic of Srpska

BiH Minister of Security, Mr. Dragan Mektić, and the Republic of Srpska Minister of Interior, Mr. Dragan Lukač, have agreed common grounds of the cooperation agreement with Europol during their meeting that took place today in Banja Luka. They also discussed the use of the AFIS system.After the meeting, Mr. Lukač has clarified that, based on the agreement, in the Ministry of Security will be established a coordinator who will manage the joint contact point. The coordinator will have two deputies from different police agencies in BiH, one of them being from the Republic of Srpska Ministry of Interior. They will rotate in the function of the coordinator every two years.”We already signed the Operational Agreement with Europol, and today we resolved certain dilemmas we have had, therefore we can expect that the EUROPOL liaison officer in Hague will we appointed soon”, said Minister Lukač.During the meeting, they also discussed the AFIS system, Automated Fingerprint Identification System, for which there already are funds of the European Commission. ”I truly hope that we will resolve this issue very soon. We have the previous Memorandum that we will try to update, given that there are certain discrepancies between the Federation cantons regarding the signing and the use of the AFIS system”, said Minister Lukač, and added that there are no obstacles for the use of this system on behalf of the RS Ministry of Interior.”We want ownership over AFIS because we are the data providers, and for that reason we want one of it in the Republic Srpska Ministry of Interior”, said Minister Lukač, adding that there are no doubts regarding this issue.He emphasized that the cooperation between BiH and Europol is extremely important, especially with regard to fight against terrorism.Regarding the AFIS system, Minister Mektić said that this is an improved system for obtaining biometric fingerprints, whose database would be managed by all the BiH police agencies. He pointed out that this system is an important police tool for disclosure and detection of serious criminal offences.He added that they also discussed the new regional projects concerning modernised approaches in the fight against terrorism and its prevention in the Western Balkans region.     Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE