The end of implementation of the second Twinning assistance project of the BiH Border Police and the Hungarian State Police was marked in the HQ of the BiH Border Police in Sarajevo on June 30th 2009.

Ferdinand Kopp, Head of the Operations sector for Justice, Home Affairs and Reform of Public Administration at the Delegation of the European Commission to BiH, spoke at the ceremony.

“Today we mark the end of the Twinning assistance project ‘Support to the BiH Border Police’, which was funded by the Delegation of the European Commission. The goal was to build capacities in the sector of criminal investigations. This is part of a wider assistance of the EU in support to strengthening of the BiH Border police, under the EU’s Justice and Home Affairs Programme. The aim was to contribute to the security and stability of BiH by enhancing performance and efficiency of the forces of the BiH Border Police, particularly in fighting organized cross-border crime, through knowledge, experience and police practice,” Kopp said.

He added that Bosnia and Herzegovina’s borders should be wide open for trade and movement of people, for cooperation within the region as well as for cooperation of the region with the EU.

“At the same time,  borders need to be closed for criminal activities or any other activities which present a threat to the security of countries in the region. The Border Police is responsible to fight against all of these activities,” he said.

Vinko Dumancic, the Director of BiH Border Police, explained that the Twinning projects represent a transfer of knowledge from EU countries to beneficiary country.

“The result of joint work between the BiH Border Police and the Hungarian Border Police in this project is development of the general Border Police Strategy in the period from 2010 to 2014 and two other strategies in the area of managing information and developing human resources in the field of tackling crime – intelligence work and investigations,” Dumancic said.

The Twinning project lasted 14 months and partners worked through this project on enhancing the BiH Border Police capacities in the area of investigations, intelligence work, efficient management of information and developing strategies in planning and developing human resources.

Partners supporting this project were Finland Toll, the Polish Border Police, the United Kingdom Home Office and EUROPOL.