Ambassador Kourkoulas, the head of the Delegation of the European Commission to

Bosnia and Herzegovina
attended on Thursday, January 29, 2009 a working meeting on the BiH
Identity Chain and the introduction of biometric passports chaired by
Minister Nović.

Ambassador welcomed the initiative taken by Minister Nović to
involve all ministries of interior and the competent entity authorities
responsible for local governance and stated that BiH has to understand
that they can not “build a house without a solid foundation”, referring
to the security of issuance of breeder documents, such as birth and
citizenship certificates, which are the key elements prior to the
introduction of biometric passports.

The introduction of biometric passports is just one requirement for
the abolition of Visas out of many others. BiH also need to implement a
number of activities related to Illegal Migration, Public order and
security and External relations and fundamental rights, which are all EC
requirements in the roadmap for the visa liberalisation.

The European Commission is during the month of March sending a number
of Expert Missions to assess some of the requirements in the roadmap.
The two first missions relate to security of breeder documents including
the identity chain and the second is a mission on law enforcement
including organised crime and anti-corruption. Those are followed by
missions on border management and migration issues.

The results of these assessments will determine the way forward in the process of visa liberalisation.