The National Contact Point for BiH for cooperation with EUROPOL was officially put into operation Thursday, by the BiH Security Ministry and the Delegation of the European Union to BiH.

Bosnia's Security Minister Nenad Nesic said this was a big day for BiH, expressing his joy that the country is no longer the only one in the region not to have full cooperation with EUROPOL.

“We lost ten years because we didn't realize that everything requires respect, dialogue and joint work. I'm deeply convinced that BiH can function only on the principles of mutual respect and agreement. This is great for the safety of all our citizens which will now be at a much higher level than before,” Nesic said.

Deputy Director-General of the Directorate for Migration and Home Affairs (DG HOME) at the European Commission, Olivier Onidi, said that this is a great day for the security of the European Union.

“Today's breakthrough is an indicator of the degree of BiH's integration into the security structures within the EU. This is the most concrete step that symbolizes the level of involvement of police agencies in the work of their colleagues in the EU member states,” he pointed out.

Johann Sattler, the Head of the EU Delegation to BiH said that good things sometimes take time, but that this was not due to a lack of understanding of values, but due to common issues such as where the headquarters will be or whose jurisdiction it will be.

Deputy Executive Director for EUROPOL Operations Jean Philippe Lecouffe said Bosnia is indeed one of EUROPOL's key partners in the fight against organized crime.

“With the establishment of a joint contact point and the engagement of a liaison officer at our headquarters in The Hague, I believe we'll work with full dynamism on the implementation of the operating agreement that EUROPOL has signed with BiH,” he said.

After the signing of the agreement on cooperation with EUROPOL back in 2016, Bosnia's political leaders have not been able to agree on who will represent the country at this European police agency due to years of internal political conflicts.

Additionally, the authorities of the Republika Srpska (RS) entity refused to place the contact point in the headquarters of the state government in Sarajevo, that is, at the Directorate for the Coordination of Police Bodies, where the contact office for cooperation with Interpol is also located.

As a result, BiH was the only country in the Balkans that did not cooperate with Europol until now.

In the end, a compromise was reached only this year, according to which the office will be in the Ministry of Security, and Bosnia's first representative at EUROPOL in The Hague will be someone from the RS Interior Ministry.