Who is Bevanda Lying To: Nothing Has Been Done on the Succession Issue Since 2009

The last meeting of the Standing Committee of High Representatives of the successor states of the former SFRY was held back in 2009, and Bosnia and Herzegovina has not fulfilled some basic conclusions since then. The new meeting, which will be held after six years in Sarajevo on November 11 this year, will bring nothing new nor favorable for our country, writes the Patria news agency.

The Council of Ministers of BiH adopted at its last session the Information of the Ministry of Finance and Treasury on activities for the implementation of the Agreement on Succession Issues, which emphasized the commitment of Bosnia and Herzegovina to implement this agreement in full as soon as possible.

Bosnia and Herzegovina will host a meeting of the Standing Joint Committee of High Representatives of the successor states of the former SFRY, which should be held on November 11 this year in Sarajevo. At this important meeting, which is being held for the first time since 2009, BiH will be represented by the Minister of Finance and Treasury Vjekoslav Bevanda, who is the BiH representative on the Standing Joint Committee of High Representatives of the successor states.

- Bevanda is not even interested, and his whitewashing is in vain. One only needs to see what has been done, for example, in the last six years. Nothing! And it is known who our representatives on the Standing Committee were - says our source from the Council of Ministers. 

Before this meeting, the Council of Ministers of BiH will consider a comprehensive information on activities for the implementation of the Agreement on Succession Issues, which will be prepared by the Ministry of Finance and Treasury as part of the preparations for the meeting.   

Incidentally, by implementing the Agreement on Succession, Bosnia and Herzegovina will receive the remaining funds from the distribution of the joint assets of the former SFRY, as well as property belonging to BiH in accordance with certain annexes to the Agreement (DKP and property in other republics of the former SFRY).

However, while the Council of Ministers and Bevanda are loudly announcing the new meeting, no one explains why the conclusions from 2009 have not been fulfilled.

At that 2009 meeting, six recommendations were made to the governments of the successor states, the effective implementation of which would remove obstacles to its implementation.

BiH was represented at the meeting of the Standing Committee on September 17 and 18, 2009, by the Minister of Finance and Treasury of BiH Dragan Vrankić (HDZ), as the high representative, and delegation members, experts Zenit Kelić and Ljubiša Vladušić. At that time, the state prime minister was Nikola Špirić.

The six recommendations made to the governments of the SFRY successor states were supposed to remove obstacles to the implementation of the Agreement and speed up the process of dividing the remaining property, as well as fulfilling the assumed obligations regarding respect for legality in the implementation of the Agreement on Succession Issues.

Annex "G" of the Agreement on Succession Issues stipulates that rights to movable and immovable property located in a successor state, to which citizens or other legal entities had rights on December 31, 1990, will be recognized, protected, and returned by that state, in accordance with established standards and norms of international law, regardless of the nationality, citizenship, place of stay or residence of those persons.

In 2009, the Standing Committee noted that the implementation of Annex "G" was not sufficiently efficient and recommended that the governments of the interested successor states conclude bilateral agreements to enable effective implementation.
BiH has never signed these agreements, and it is known that the former republics of Yugoslavia have returned almost all of their property that they owned in BiH, while BiH's property, estimated at 500 million euros, has not yet been returned.

According to the Succession Agreement, BiH returned the property of companies from the former republics, and is now seeking its own through the courts. Serbia and Croatia are violating the Agreement, but BiH also bears responsibility.

In terms of returning property, BiH has the most problems with Serbia and Croatia, which has been attempted to be resolved for years only through political agreement, but it is clear that this has yielded nothing.

The institutions of the state of BiH have completely failed, as have the politicians who have done nothing in recent years to resolve this problem.

JANAF, DOES ANYONE KNOW WHAT THAT IS

The Adriatic Oil Pipeline (Janaf) is part of the succession mass of the former Yugoslavia, and BiH should finally take all necessary measures to protect its interests in this regard.

Documents submitted regarding the sale of oil refineries and motor oils in Bosanski Brod and Modriča to the Russian Zarubezhneft show that the issue of the ownership stake in Janaf was not the subject of that contract, contrary to speculation. 

Nikola Špirić announced that, in cooperation with the BiH Presidency and the State Attorney's Office, he would raise the issue of ownership and protection of BiH's interests in this project, which was jointly implemented before the war by INA, Sarajevo's Energoinvest, and Novi Sad's Naftagas, but it never moved beyond promises.