Čović: Settle the Election Law and the Constitutional Court by the end of October

(Patria) - The fourth session of the HDZ BiH Presidency was held in Mostar, after which Dragan Čović, President of HDZ BiH, addressed the media.

Čović announced meetings with partners for next week, as well as meetings with representatives of the international community.

“We are trying to arrange times with partners – Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday – so that we can sit down together several times to enable the Council of Ministers of BiH to function normally and make all the decisions we announced we would have in July, which would mean all the laws, primarily those concerning rights and conflict of interest, the HJPC, and courts, to be in procedure. Parliament is also scheduled for Tuesday. There might be an extraordinary session if all this is done, so we can achieve some productivity.

Of course, the Minister of Finance also needs to be appointed, so from that perspective, we can somewhat relax the tension that has arisen after the last month or two of our not-so-best functioning,” Čović said.

He added that the only way to stabilize BiH is through the implementation of European and all other integration processes.

“We want to complete the main part of the 31 activities by October. This will certainly include the Election Law and the Constitutional Court, and these are the serious matters we must take seriously. My proposal will be daily communication with the presidents of the parties that form the package, namely HDZ, SNSD, SDP, NiP, and Our Party – to ensure fluidity in daily communication regarding what we agree on in the legislative, and especially the executive power. It will be similar at the Federation level with a slightly smaller number of parties, as SNSD is not directly involved as such there,” he said.

He congratulated Johann Sattler on another year of his mandate, expressing hope that together they will try to create a clear framework for work in the coming months to make coordination mechanisms functional for decision-making.

“There will also be meetings with the American administration. I don't see another way. I think these meetings will take place in the institutions of BiH; we will not conduct them out of the public eye. We will organize them as HDZ. It seems to me that we have enough energy to use the time ahead of us to get out of the crisis we almost fell into because we started on a negative trajectory, and we will need your support and criticism, as that is your job,” he said.

He added that there will be challenges, as there are still those on the scene, as he says, who are trying to deepen the current crisis.

“Our task is to stabilize the legal and security framework, which is most important in our region, so that no one rattles their weapons here anymore. I have said that every issue here can be resolved through political agreement and can be resolved by political agreement. I will ask all colleagues to set aside the harsh words they often use for various purposes when communicating with the public, and to try to be more considerate of each other – to give a chance for agreement,” Čović emphasized.

Regarding the Herzegovina-Neretva Canton, Čović says that matters will be resolved on the same principle in that canton as soon as possible, because time has long since run out.

“It is a bit unusual, as 20 votes are necessary, and coalition partners are very modest with the numbers they can secure, so it will require another effort from HDZ to try to finalize this by the end of the week. That is our endeavor, to have the government of this canton by Friday or Thursday,” he added, without specifying with which partners they would form the government.

He also touched upon Canton 10, saying that it is perhaps an easier task because parties with a Croatian affiliation dominate in that area, and the government, as he says, has been functioning for the last two and a half years.