(Patria) - In his then capacity as Chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Željko Komšić sent a request for an opinion to the Venice Commission on March 15, 2024, regarding the method of electing judges to the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and comparisons with the practice in Council of Europe member states.
The reason for seeking such an opinion, emphasized Komšić's cabinet, is the fact that the provisions of the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which regulate the method of electing judges to the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, are not sufficiently precise and open up the possibility for incompetent individuals without any judicial experience to be appointed to the highest judicial institution in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
"Furthermore, a wrong practice is being created where judges are appointed to the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina within certain ethnic quotas, although this is not stipulated by the Constitution. For these reasons, in which it is evident that in both cases the quality of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina itself is significantly undermined," it is stated.
Komšić sent a request for an opinion to the Venice Commission, asking for the current system of appointing judges to the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina to be aligned with European practice.
"Therefore, we call on all political and other actors in Bosnia and Herzegovina to refrain from any appointments to the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina until the Venice Commission, as the most significant legal authority in Europe, provides its opinion, which is planned for June 2024, after the Plenary Session of the Venice Commission," we were told by Komšić's cabinet.
They believe this is particularly important because, as they say, disregarding the opinion of the Venice Commission and not accepting European standards could jeopardize the European path of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Building on Komšić's request, the Democratic Front Caucus in the Parliament of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina has submitted an initiative to the parliamentary procedure, which, in accordance with the Rules of Procedure of the House of Representatives of the Parliament of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, requires the decision on the appointment of the missing judge to the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina to be postponed until the Venice Commission delivers its Opinion at the plenary session, which will be held on June 21-22, 2024.
In the initiative, they drew attention to the fact that a wrong practice is being created where judges are appointed to the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina within certain ethnic quotas, although this is not stipulated by the Constitution, which makes Komšić's request even more justified.
Using their right from Article 12 of the Rules of Procedure of the House of Representatives, which states: "A representative may request that the House of Representatives postpone a decision on a specific issue that they consider exceptionally important, and on which opposing views are expressed during the debate compared to the stance of their club," we ask all other caucuses and independent candidates to postpone the issue of appointing judges to the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina until the Venice Commission delivers its Opinion and Recommendations concerning this extremely important issue - the DF initiative states.
Given all of the above, the DF emphasized that they consider the initiative to be justified, and that they request its unconditional application within the next activities of the House of Representatives of the Parliament of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, especially considering that the Opinion and Recommendations of the Venice Commission will be delivered in a relatively short period.
Given the request from member of the Presidency of BiH Željko Komšić, it remains to be seen whether the Parliament of FBiH will accept the initiative of the Democratic Front to let the highest legal authority in Europe, the Venice Commission, have the final say on the method of electing Constitutional Court judges.
This would, evidently, stop the daily political bickering between the government and the opposition regarding the election of BiH Constitutional Court judges, which has been ongoing for the past year.
Despite everything, the clear stance of the international community on the issue of electing Constitutional Court judges is still unknown. However, if the international community in BiH desires transparency in the work of the Bosnian-Herzegovinian judiciary and if it supports the election of competent and best candidates to the highest judicial institutions, then it must certainly support the solution proposed by member of the Presidency of BiH Željko Komšić, which gives the Venice Commission the opportunity to be a credible arbitrator using its authority when it comes to the method of electing Constitutional Court judges, which all political actors in BiH should respect.
In the end, the question remains open whether the representatives of the international community have ever clearly communicated to the representatives of the Trojka that the election of incompetent candidates to the Constitutional Court of BiH is unacceptable and that they are thus undermining the credibility and competence of the Constitutional Court.
M.T.
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