The Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection met with the representatives of the Personal Data Protection Agency in Bosnia and Herzegovina, led by Petar Kovacevic, the Director of the Agency. During the conversation the two sides exchanged experiences on legislative arrangements and experiences in putting them into practice in both states. They have also reached an agreement on enhancement of bilateral cooperation between the Commissioner and the Agency, as well as mutual contribution to the regional cooperation in the field of Personal Data Protection.

Estimating that the meeting was very useful, the Commissioner Rodoljub Sabic also said:

‘Special attention has been dedicated to legislative arrangements, especially to those issues which have not been regulated by the Law on Personal Data Protection in Serbia, or are incomplete, that is inappropriate. We have also discussed the practical consequences of different legal authorizations of the Commissioner and the Agency, with the aim to find possible solutions during future amendments to the Law on Personal Data Protection in Serbia.

Together we have realized the need for continuous enhancement of the cooperation between bodies in charge of the personal data protection in the region, especially in former Yugoslavia region. This region is politically divided today, but when it comes to processing personal data, there are numerous intertwined nets. Huge amount of personal data of our citizens is possessed by different authorities in the states that used to be members of the SFRY and vice versa. That is why we need mutual coordinated effort in order to respect the standards of democratic world as much as possible when it comes to processing and protecting the data, and decrease the abuse risks.

The need for continuous enhancement of the cooperation between bodies in charge of data protection exists in all fields, especially those processing some vast data bases e. g. security, pension and health insurance, employees’ rights etc. Having that in mind, in 2009 I organized a conference where managers of bodies in charge of Personal Data Protection from all former SFRY states met for the first time and I am glad that in today’s discussion we have agreed that such and similar forms of cooperation should be continued and intensified in the interest of better data protection.’