Surprises in the endless trio: Will the cases of the Indirect Taxation Authority of BiH, Čavara, the public administration coordinator, and the Election Law be repeated?

By Amra Vrabac

The state coalition consisting of the Trio parties SDP, NIP, Our Party, along with the experienced SNSD and HDZ BiH, has failed to pass reform laws within a year, upon which it depends whether BiH will get accession negotiations with the EU at the European Council session in March.

But let's go in order. Of the Trio parties, only SDP knows what it means to be in state government, while this is a baptism by fire for NIP and Our Party. And it is precisely this inexperience, and even ignorance, that is reflected in the state of BiH.

When the Law on Prevention of Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorist Activities was finally agreed upon and adopted by the Council of Ministers of BiH, and then by the House of Representatives of the BiH Parliament, the logical next step was for it to be adopted by the House of Peoples of the BiH Parliament as well. However, SNSD delegates blocked the urgent procedure without prior warning, and the president of HDZ BiH, Dragan Čović, was also not in favor of the Collegium immediately withdrawing for harmonization, as requested by the Speaker of the House, Kemal Ademović.

Although SNSD has not yet provided a clear explanation as to why they blocked the procedure, thus slowing down the adoption of this law, upon which it depends whether BiH will be on the FATF "grey list", it is becoming increasingly clear that this was an "revenge" by SNSD because the Trio parties changed their stance on some agreed-upon issues and laws at Milorad Dodik's estate in Bakinci on January 18. The session of the House of Peoples was held on January 31.

The head of NIP and Minister of Foreign Affairs of BiH, Elmedin Konaković, after the fiasco with that law, stated that he was negatively surprised that the law was not adopted.

"There was no need to further complicate a law, harmonized, agreed upon, which passed the Council of Ministers of BiH, which passed the House of Representatives, in this way, because it is one of those important laws that the European Union measures us by. I do not have information for what reasons SNSD slowed it down, we still cannot say blocked it, because there is a way of harmonization in the Collegium to keep this law alive," Konaković stated the day after the session.

The Moneyval Committee is currently visiting BiH and will conclude its mission and report on February 28, and by that date, the law must not only be adopted but also enter into force. The state coalition has very little time, and the EU Delegation has clearly requested that a session of the House of Peoples be held by Friday, February 16. However, the session has not yet been scheduled, although Dragan Čović stated from Ljubuški on Monday that it should be held.

However, another statement by Čović surprised Sabina Ćudić, a state representative of Our Party, again.

"I am surprised that the leader of HDZ stated yesterday that only Croats are committed to the European path. If that is the case - here is a challenge, let's urgently pass the law on preventing conflicts of interest this week. More objections came from the Chairperson of the Council of Ministers than from representatives from the RS. If we do not open negotiations, we will have time for blocking and pointing fingers," said Ćudić.

The Trio parties, or rather their representatives in the Council of Ministers of BiH, were equally surprised when HDZ's cadre Darko Kasap was appointed coordinator for public administration, instead of a candidate from the Trio parties, specifically SDP. When they realized what mistake had been made and requested a new vote, Krišto refused and continued with the session. However, although they could have corrected their mistake at the next session by making remarks on the minutes and ultimately re-voting on that appointment, to some's surprise or not, the ministers from the Bosniak constituent people and Forto voted for those minutes without a word.

And surprises within the Trio are a constant occurrence. Although they were surprised that HDZ nominated Marinko Čavara for the Collegium of the House of Representatives of the BiH Parliament, even though he is on the US black list, he still received support, and two representatives of Our Party split their votes, with Ćudić being against and Predrag Kojović for.

SDP BiH sought the position of Director of the Indirect Taxation Authority of BiH during negotiations with SNSD and HDZ, and although they claimed they would not give it up, as Vojin Mijatović said, "if we give them that, then we can give them all other positions", to some's surprise or not, SNSD got that position and appointed Zoran Tegeltija. And then came the support for the new Minister of Finance, Srđan Amidžić (SNSD).

Although parity of 12-12-12 was promised in December 2022 regarding the directors of state institutions, this did not happen, and Bosniaks are still disadvantaged.

The Trio is also surprised by HDZ BiH's proposal for the election of the BiH Presidency member from the Croat constituent people. Although Čović calls it "a small condition" and claims that the Trio parties also agreed at the meetings they held, the US Embassy still sees it as further ethnic division because five cantons and the votes of Croats from those cantons would be worth more than in the other five. Without constitutional changes, there will be no change to the BiH Election Law. Some of the Trio's representatives have already announced that they will not support such a proposal from HDZ. However, we would not be surprised if some of the previously mentioned examples were repeated and the Trio once again feigned surprise after the vote.