The Republic of Srpska

The Republic of Srpska Minister of the Interior, Mr Siniša Karan, the Republic of Srpska Police Director, Mr Siniša Kostrešević, and the representatives of other police agencies in BIH, signed today the Rulebook on operation and operational cooperation of the joint contact point for cooperation with EUROPOL. Minister Karan said that signing the Rulebook should accelerate and increase the exchange of information on the most serious forms of organized crime, and reminded that the whole story of establishing the Joint contact started in 2007, and that now the formal mechanism for information exchange with EUROPOL was established at regional level, as well. Also, Minister Karan expressed his belief that signing the Rulebook would contribute to a larger scale of information exchange relevant for countering organized crime. ‘The ‘Sky’ application has proved that we have had organized forms of crime at regional level for a while now for which all police agencies have not had enough information. I suppose the situation will improve in future’, Minister Karan said. He added that international activities in countering the most serious forms of organized crime, in which law enforcement agencies in BIH had participated, had been implemented heretofore, and that the Republic of Srpska Ministry of the Interior had also provided their full contribution in those activities. The Minister of Security at the Council of Ministers, Mr Nenad Nešić, said that BIH, despite being the only country of the Western Balkans that had not yet established full cooperation with EUROPOL, by establishing the Joint contact point, attached special importance to international police cooperation, which is in the best interest of internal security. He expressed his belief that EUROPOL would make BIH safer and closer to the family of European countries. The Rulebook signed today defines the manner of operation, obligations and responsibilities of the Joint contact point, rights and obligations of the competent law enforcement agencies in BIH, as well as other procedures significant for establishing the system of cooperation and information exchange between the competent authorities in BIH and Europe. The opening of the office of the contact point is announced for May, and after that, the contact point of BIH in the Hague would be established. The representative of the contact point in the Hague will be from the Republic of Srpska Ministry of the Interior, Mr Aleksandar Stjepanović.