An EU funded project supporting the law enforcement agencies publicly presented their recommendations to improve public affairs activities and joint communication by police and public prosecutors in criminal cases on 28 March 2014 in Sarajevo. Training for spokespersons in law enforcement agencies and prosecutor’s offices, led by local experts, followed the presentation.

Gyula Radi, the Long Term Project, said that the project had begun in May 2012 and that its main goal was to enforce co-operation between the prosecution and the police.

“Bosnia and Herzegovina is nowadays where Hungary was in 1994, with well trained personnel but with the lack of coordination amongst key actors of law enforcement area”, stressed Radi.

Radi emphasised also the importance of trainings with professionals in regard to BiH’s EU integration process, especially focusing on transparency. “In terms of public relations and EU integration process of BiH I would like to explain that for the EU path it is not only important to adopt the laws and regulations, it is equally important to work in a professional and transparent way in every aspect of the law enforcement area, starting with media relations”, Radi stated.

The recommendations provided an overview on how to plan media work during a crime investigation. It concluded that prosecutors and police must communicate more efficiently, recognizing that media planning was the main problem.

Overall, the EU’s project has 10 components, covering whole area of fighting against crime especially different types of organised crime, institutional buildings, increasing co-operation between different law enforcement actors.