CCI: Work of the FBiH Parliament Below That of Some Cantonal Assemblies

Narrow party interests continue to occupy a primary place in political activity in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. This is stated in the Report on the work of the FBiH Parliament for 2016, presented by the Centers for Civil Initiatives, Patria reports.

The CCI states that during just over a year of the FBiH Parliament's work, there is constant mistrust between coalition partners.

- The key reason initially were two laws: the Law on Games of Chance and the Law on Control of Legality of Exercising Rights from Veteran-Disability Protection, and already now, with the law on forests, it can be assumed that disputes will also arise over other issues. One of them is the law on energy efficiency – the CCI report states.

The current ruling majority in the Federation of BiH committed to implementing obligations from the Reform Agenda, but reports show that the number of fulfilled obligations is very small. Far below the average of the previous government in the FBiH.

- The FBiH Parliament, in 2016, seriously began working only two months before the end of the year. In those two months, the House of Representatives held more sessions than in the entire previous part of the year and considered almost the same number of measures and adopted almost the same number of laws as in the preceding ten-month period. The House of Peoples did not have such a dominant score, but in the last month of the year alone, it considered more measures and adopted more laws than in any of the first three quarters of the year.

Attempts to prevent discussion and adoption of binding decisions on certain disputed measures on the agenda led, during 2016, to multi-month delays in holding some sessions or their continuations. Thus, the 14th regular session of the House of Peoples ended only five and a half months after its start, and the 10th regular session of the House of Representatives was held only seven months after its first scheduling.

The overall results of the FBiH Parliament in 2016 are better only than the results from 2015, and worse than each of the years of the previous mandate (previous government, editor's note). This primarily refers to the House of Representatives, which in 2016 held 20 sessions, ten sessions fewer than the average of the previous mandate. At those sessions in 2016, 156 measures were considered and 29 laws were adopted, while the average of the previous mandate was 180 measures and 40 laws. By most parameters, the results of the House of Peoples are also below the average of the previous mandate.

The number of laws adopted in 2016 at the level of the FBiH Parliament (i.e., laws adopted in both Houses, in the proposal, in the same text) is very modest. In one year, only 26 laws were adopted, which is below the level of some cantonal assemblies. And half the number of laws adopted in the other BiH entity. At the same time, this is the worst result of the Parliament in the last six years - stated the CCI, NAP reports.