Although he has control, Nešić benefits from the collapse of the National Contact Point: That's why he attacks the messengers and waits for EUROPOL to decide!

By: Amina Čorbo-Zećo

Now that it is finally clear that the National Contact Point for cooperation with EUROPOL is not functioning, or rather, when the public is informed of the devastating facts and events in this 'floating body', it is necessary to recall, given the current situation, how the Agreement was signed in the first place, which not only did not improve, but rather set back the relationship between Bosnia and Herzegovina and EUROPOL.

The fact that Nenad Nešić persecutes messengers instead of solving accumulated problems is a clear sign that this kind of work of the Contact Point suits him, which should be an alarm to the authorities – if there are any in this country!

Simply put, the legal status of the 'joint contact point' is completely unclear. It is not known to whom it is accountable, whether it has legal personality, or whether it is an independent legal entity that has been established or operates within another legal entity!? All that is known is that Nenad Nešić, the Minister of Security of BiH, holds all the strings, through Danijel Maunaga, the Deputy Coordinator of the BiH National Contact Point for cooperation with EUROPOL!?

But this story did not start yesterday, it has been going on for years, and the lines of resistance were broken in 2021 when Selmo Cikotić, then Minister of Security, as well as Aljoša Čampara, former Minister of the FBiH Ministry of Internal Affairs, relented and signed an agreement in which they agreed that the Contact Point would be located in the premises of the Ministry of Security, and not the Directorate for the Coordination of Police Bodies, which had been performing these tasks for years prior, as the law also specifies.

However, no one listened then; experts warned that such a solution was contrary to the Guidelines for a Single Point of Contact (SPOC) for international information exchange, which are part of the EU Acquis and BiH's obligations in joining the EU.

According to EU guidelines, all channels for international information exchange (INTERPOL, EUROPOL, SELEC, police liaison officer) must be located in one place.

And all this communication and cooperation with the competent authorities in BiH and the European Police Office proceeded without problems in terms of procedures and delivery of information through the DKPT to member states. The only exception at the time was the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Republika Srpska.

Even the support of Pedro Serrano did not help then. We remind you that in a letter addressed to the former Chairman of the Council of Ministers, Denis Zvizdić, the Deputy Secretary-General of the European External Action Service, Pedro Serrano, considering the organizational structure, material-technical equipment, and human resources, supported the existing operationalization of the Agreement on operational and strategic cooperation between BiH and EUROPOL within the Directorate for the Coordination of Police Bodies.

However, nothing helped! Signatures were put down so that Nešić could boast, but also manage the Contact Point, even though he has no operational jurisdiction!

And while today a minor issue is being discussed, namely whether Ramo Isak is authorized to send correspondence to EUROPOL or not, the authorities are not dealing with the core issue, which are the problems within the Contact Point, which was to be expected. Because where there are too many cooks, the broth is spoiled.

Especially those cooks for whom the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina is not important at all, even more so, they would prefer it not to exist and to collapse, which is why there are no innocents in this story. Neither former nor current. Everyone agreed to a 'compromise' that satisfied the MUP of RS and the forces from Republika Srpska, who are on the right track to even shut down the Contact Point, as they are already lowering the protected SIENA channel to Banja Luka!