The Brussels Protocol is a political capitulation of the SDA to the policies of the HDZ and SNSD

By agreeing to the scandalous undermining of the state judiciary, Bakir Izetbegović and the SDA have capitulated to the anti-Bosnia and Herzegovina policies of Milorad Dodik and Dragan Čović, stated the Social Democratic Party of BiH (SDP), reports the Patria News Agency.

In Brussels on Friday, it was agreed that the reform of the Law on Courts of BiH would be developed based on the version proposed in Brussels by the Ministry of Justice of Republika Srpska, as well as on the Draft Law on Courts from 2013. This was signed yesterday by the Ministers of Justice of BiH Josip Grubeša, the Minister of Justice of the Federation of BiH Mate Jozić, the Minister of Justice of Republika Srpska Anton Kasipović, and the President of the Judicial Commission of Brčko District of BiH Safet Pizović.

The SDP believes that this protocol is an unforgivable political move by the SDA, which could result in the complete collapse of the state judiciary, the total disintegration of the legal system of BiH, and subsequently the state itself.

- With this protocol, Milorad Dodik has achieved more than he ever dreamed of with the unconstitutional and illegal referendum. At the same time, after the SDA gifted him economically, Dragan Čović is now also getting a judicial third entity - warn the SDP.

- This is also the final capitulation of the already lenient, disoriented, and confused policy of the European Union towards Milorad Dodik's destructive attacks on the judicial system of our country. Instead of Bosnia and Herzegovina gaining a Supreme Court of BiH and thus ensuring equality of citizens before the law, we have received the Dodik-Čović agreement, which deprives the Court of BiH of the key jurisdiction to try cases under entity criminal laws, with the blessing of the European Union. The establishment of the Supreme Court of BiH is the only reform of the BiH judiciary that means progress for all citizens and the implementation of European standards in BiH. The SDP BiH will never give up on this goal, and sooner or later our country will have its Supreme Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The SDP believes that the Council of Ministers of BiH and the Government of the Federation of BiH, by signing the Brussels Protocol through their Ministers of Justice, have abandoned this key reform and have fully accepted Milorad Dodik's dictate by agreeing to the text of the Law on Courts of BiH written in the Government of RS, instead of the law that has been harmonized at the highest levels of BiH for years.

- The Brussels Protocol will permanently prevent the establishment of any jurisdiction of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina on the territory of Republika Srpska. The legal system of the entity of RS will thus de jure be positioned as the judiciary of an independent state. This short-sighted, anti-state, and anti-people policy demonstrated by the Council of Ministers of BiH and the Government of the FBiH must be stopped. Finally, the SDA must stop delivering everything that Dragan Čović and Milorad Dodik agree on to the detriment of this country - warn the SDP.

The statement from this party states that the position of European officials is particularly surprising and concerning, as they continue to tolerate Dodik's political chauvinism and experiment with the citizens of BiH, agreeing to establish precedents in BiH unknown in any European country. Unlike them, the statement continues, the citizens of BiH will live in BiH and deserve to have a judicial system like all other citizens in the European Union. This means that the judiciary must be independent, depoliticized, and that all citizens must have equal treatment throughout the territory of BiH. Anything less, the SDP believes, is neither a European standard nor what the citizens of BiH want and need, regardless of what Čović and Dodik think about it.