Central Bank of BiH will protect its interests with available legal mechanisms

(Patria) - The Central Bank of Bosnia and Herzegovina is obliged to secure adequate space for the Sarajevo Main Unit, the institution announced.

"In the legitimate fulfillment of our task, we are obliged to persevere. It is worrying that the interest of the Central Bank of BiH, as one of the most significant state institutions, is not recognized in this project, and the violation of the fundamental right - the right to property in post-festum opinions and decisions of other institutions is not a good message. The Central Bank of BiH has not officially received the opinion of the Commission for the Preservation of National Monuments, which states that the conceptual design of the Central Bank of BiH at the Hastahana site in Sarajevo is not in accordance with the provisions of the Decision on the Proclamation of the Historical Urban Landscape of Sarajevo as a National Monument of BiH.

Information about this was published on social networks, and at this moment we cannot comment on the legal consequences for the rights of the Central Bank of BiH as the legal and conscientious owner of the parcel, and we will await the final decision of the Centar Municipality regarding the resolution of the Central Bank of BiH's request for the issuance of urban planning consent.

The Central Bank of BiH purchased the subject land in December 2019, in accordance with the valid regulations, as well as the documents of the Centar Municipality which are still in force - the Municipality's Regulatory Plan and the Decision of the Municipal Council. We are a conscientious and legal owner of the parcel, and the purchase agreement clearly defines that the land was purchased with the exclusive purpose of constructing a business facility for the needs of the Sarajevo Main Unit.

We remind once again that the parcel owned by the Central Bank of BiH has always been a paved area used for parking and borders a park area. It remains unclear by what criteria a parking space, which is designated for construction by the valid Regulatory Plan, can be treated as a national monument.

If, for any reason, the Centar Municipality cannot fulfill its contractual obligations, the Central Bank of BiH will use all available legal mechanisms to protect its legitimate interests, as the institution has been placed in a situation of absolute legal uncertainty, and thus, as the legal owner, is prevented from using the property for the purposes for which it was purchased, even though it has fulfilled all its contractual obligations properly and on time.

We also particularly emphasize that the Decision on the Proclamation of the Historical Urban Landscape of Sarajevo as a National Monument of BiH was made at the end of 2020 - almost a year after the Central Bank of BiH completed the purchase and acquired ownership of the subject parcel, which, moreover, was not included in the aforementioned Decision at all," the statement said.