Coalition is in no hurry: House of Peoples session not yet scheduled, BiH closer to FATF grey list than EU accession talks

(Patria) - A session of the House of Peoples of the BiH Parliamentary Assembly to adopt the Law on Prevention of Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorist Activities has still not been scheduled, after delegates from SNSD blocked the urgent procedure at the session on January 31st. Although the Speaker of the House of Peoples, Kemal Ademović, called for the Collegium to reach an agreement, Dragan Čović told him that "there will be no agreement today", and the session continued with other agenda items.

The EU Delegation issued a statement on Saturday, February 10th, calling on the House of Peoples to hold an urgent session and adopt the Law before the Moneyval Committee completes its visit and report on BiH. If the law does not come into force by February 28th, BiH will most likely be placed on the FATF grey list, which is not a good signal for a country aspiring to open accession negotiations.

"Being placed on the list would have political, economic, and financial consequences for BiH, affecting access to international financial markets and transactions, private commercial activities, as well as public fiscal affairs, and could further deter foreign investment and hinder the international movement of capital," warned the EU Delegation to BiH.

The Head of the Bosniak Club in the House of Peoples of the BiH Parliamentary Assembly, Šefik Džaferović, told the media today that he expected the session to be scheduled.

"This is an important law that concerns BiH's rating with international financial institutions. If this law is not adopted, BiH could end up on the 'grey' and 'black' lists of international institutions, which would certainly be difficult for the citizens of BiH, as well as for the institutions of BiH," said Džaferović.

SDA delegates supported the urgent procedure last time, and would do the same at a new session and support the law itself.

"This is a law that concerns BiH's primary interest, BiH's rating, and BiH's European path. Therefore, regardless of the fact that SDA is in opposition, we will support this law, as we have done many times before and as we will continue to do in the future," said Džaferović.

After the last meeting of the state coalition on February 8th, a package of European laws was agreed upon, meaning that working groups from these parties would finalize details on which they still lack consensus, as in the case of the Law on Prevention of Conflict of Interest and the seat of the Appellate Division of the BiH Court (Law on Courts), while it was stated that the Law on Prevention of Money Laundering had already been agreed upon and only needed to be adopted.

However, there is no scheduled session on the official website of the BiH Parliamentary Assembly, while only a regular session of the House of Representatives of the BiH Parliamentary Assembly is announced for February 28th.