HEAD OF EU POLICE MISSION VISITED BOSNIAN STATE INVESTIATION AND PROTECTION AGENCY

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (November 26,2008) - Stefan Feller, Head of the EU Police Mission in Bosnia (EUPM), met yesterday with Mirko Lujic, Head of the Bosnian State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA), who informed him about the present situation and cooperation of SIPA with other law enforcement agencies in Bosnia.

The two top police officials discussed ways to improve the fight against organized crime in Bosnia, and stressed the importance of a smooth information and intelligence exchange amongst the Bosnian law enforcement agencies.

In order to improve the cooperation amongst Bosnia's police agencies the Heads of EUPM and SIPA suggested that the representatives of the various Bosnian law enforcement agencies, police agencies and prosecutor’s offices alike, should hold a series of meetings.

The Head of EUPM said that he would strongly support activities aiming to create the necessary pre-conditions for the further development of the Agency, especially as far as human and technical resources are concerned.

One of the ways to achieve this is to amend the existing law regulations in order to allow SIPA to recruit more new employees, particularly junior and senior inspectors and senior inspector. SIPA is still not at its full strength, currently reaching 68 percent of its full capacity.

The working meeting was also attended by the Deputy Director of SIPA Sead Lisak and EUPM's Chief Adviser to SIPA Brian Donley.
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