Increasing the level of personal data protection in public, especially in the police sector of Bosnia and Herzegovina, is the main objective of the project “Support to the Personal Data Protection Agency in BiH”, which was presented on 14 October 2009 at the premises of the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH by Mr Nikola Špirić, the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of BiH, Mr Petar Kovačević, Director of the Personal Data Protection Agency, Mr Boris Iarochevitch, Head of Operations, Delegation of the European Commission to Bosnia and Herzegovina, H.E. Mr Joachim Schmidt, Ambassador of Germany to BiH and Mr Tino Nauman, Team Leader and Deputy Director of the Personal Data Protection Agency Saxony.

In his introductory address, Špirić informed the journalists that the project, worth 250.000 euro, is funded by the European Union, implemented as of 1 October 2009 by the Personal Data Protection Agency of Saxony in cooperation with the Personal Data Protection Agency in BiH and that the project would last for six months, until 31 March 2010. Špirić thanked the European Commission for the support and stated: „with the adoption of the Law on Personal Data Protection, Bosnia and Herzegovina demonstrated its commitment to democratic process while this project will assist BiH in the fulfilment of the necessary requirements in the European integration process “.

„The fundamental right of every person is the protection of a person’s private and family life, home and correspondence. Any interference into a private life of any person by a government should be limited, except in the case of national security. That is why the protection of personal data is one of fundamental European rights “, stated in his address Mr Boris Iarochevitch, Head of Operations within the European Commission Delegation to Bosnia and Herzegovina. He emphasised that especially nowadays, in the era of ’information society’, when the cross-frontier flow of the personal data is increased, it is necessary to increase the level of personal data protection. As for BiH, Mr Iarochevitch emphasised:

“The Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina provides guarantees for the protection of fundamental human rights and freedoms, while the legal framework is in accordance with the EC directives.

„Bosnia and Herzegovina took over the obligation to ” establish independent supervisory bodies in order to efficiently monitor and guarantee the enforcement of national personal data protection legislation. However, although the public institutions committed themselves to respect the  legislation and create the Plan on personal data protection, the actual level of harmonisation is still very low. That is why the Personal Data Protection Agency, which is a turning point for the Road Map, must ensure that the public institutions function in accordance with the law. I am convinced that this project will demonstrate efforts and cooperation by local but also international institutions dealing with the personal data protection, such as EUROPOL, in order to increase the level of citizens’ trust in these institutions. This project supports BiH in implementing security and justice “ – stated Mr Boris Iarochevitch.

H.E. Joachim Schmidt, Ambassador of Germany to BiH, also expressed full support and support of his government for this project. He presented some concrete examples from German legislation in order to illustrate the personal data protection in Germany. „It is important how the authorities and private companies treat the data. The information is actually raw material for communication with other people, but is also raw material for concrete political and economic relations. If you have a properly set up system of information, the opinion on freedoms will be based on it. German Federal Constitutional Court defined it in a following manner: “data protection is elementary functional condition for a free and democratic society based on ability to act and to enable interaction of the citizens” – stated H.E. Mr Joachim Schmidt.

Mr Tino Nauman, Team Leader and Deputy Director of the Personal Data Protection Agency of Saxony, expressed his full operational and technical assistance.

The project consists of three activities: legislation analysis and harmonization of personal data protection legislation in accordance with the EU Standards; strengthening of institutional and human resources capacities of the Agency for Personal Data Protection in order to enable it to fulfill its competencies; strengthening of awareness and capacities of public institutions processing personal data.