Our Party: We reject the transfer of competencies from BiH to entities

SARAJevo, (Patria) - Our Party rejects the transfer of competencies from Bosnia and Herzegovina to the entities, which was agreed upon yesterday by the ruling coalition SDA-DF-HDZ and SNSD. The state of Bosnia and Herzegovina received an extremely small number of its exclusive competencies in Dayton - only ten are listed in Article III. 1 of the BiH Constitution. Instead of jealously guarding each of these ten exclusive competencies, the self-proclaimed patriotic forces, through yesterday's agreement between the state and entity prime ministers on the entry of foreign nationals, have handed over two of these competencies to the entities, Our Party announced.

"The first of the ten exclusive competencies of the State of Bosnia and Herzegovina listed is foreign policy. By allowing entity prime ministers to decide which citizens and under what conditions can enter Bosnia and Herzegovina, the entities have gained the right to decide on measures that have explicit foreign policy implications. Due to this move, foreign countries can no longer negotiate exclusively with the State of Bosnia and Herzegovina regarding the eventual easing of measures for their citizens, but are now forced to do so with its entities as well. Moreover, the aforementioned article of the BiH Constitution also stipulates that immigration policy and its regulation are within the exclusive competence of the State of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The self-proclaimed pro-Bosnian forces in the BiH Council of Ministers have also handed over this competency to the entities, or to Milorad Dodik himself when it comes to Republika Srpska," it is stated.

Such behavior by the ruling coalition is particularly incomprehensible given that since the outbreak of the COVID pandemic, all decisions concerning the entry of foreign nationals into Bosnia and Herzegovina have been made by the BiH Council of Ministers, in accordance with explicit constitutional competencies. The BiH Council of Ministers has thus introduced, eased, modified, and clarified numerous measures for various countries. The transfer of these competencies to the entities - in a situation where Bosnia and Herzegovina already has so few competencies - can only be understood as a concession to Dodik for issues of a personnel nature. However, such a policy represents an extremely dangerous precedent and introduces consociational practice into Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Our Party commits to stopping such practices and building power at every level exclusively on the basis of a program based on preserving the competencies of the State of Bosnia and Herzegovina.