After more than a year of negotiations, Bosnia and Herzegovinia finally got its EUROPOL contact point at a meeting held in Sarajevo.

Bosnia will now become part of EUROPOL. It will have access to all the information, analysis, data bases, it will take part in joint international police operations, investigations, arrests, and it will get to some sensitive information, such as information on terrorism and organised crime, a lot easier.

The meeting was attended by Bosnia's Security Minister Dragan Mektic, Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH) entity Interior Minister Aljisa Campara, Republika Srpska (RS) entity Interior Minister Dragan Lukac, Head of EU Delegation in Bosnia Lars Gunnar Wigemark and a EUROPOL officer.

The negotiations on the establishment of Bosnia’s contact point with EUROPOL lasted for over a year, because the RS Interior Ministry would not allow this office to function as a single body and to be situated in the Directorate for Coordination of Police Bodies, but that RS Ministry has its own representative at the office.

The aim of the contact point office is to exchange information between EUROPOL and all the local police agencies.

Failure to reach an agreement on this matter would have meant a suspension of the agreement on information exchange between Bosnia and EUROPOLE, thus making Bosnia the only country in Europe not to have a contact point.