No State Border Commission: Even the Council of Ministers does not know when the Neum Bay will be closed

Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia have never drawn the line and closed the Neum Bay, and when that will happen is not known even to the members of the BiH Council of Ministers, writes the Patria news agency.

It is precisely on this fact that SBB deputy in the PD PSBiH Damir Arnaut based his questions addressed to the Council of Ministers, and he is interested in what measures are planned to be taken, and when, so that Bosnia and Herzegovina can finally independently determine the normal baselines for measuring the width of the territorial sea, i.e., the low-water line along the coast in accordance with the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS)?

Arnaut also wants to know when the straight baselines connecting suitable points of the BiH sea coast will finally be drawn.

However, the problem in all this is the fact that the mandate of the State Border Commission of BiH, which is appointed by the Council of Ministers upon the proposal of the Ministry of Civil Affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina, has expired.

- Activities have been initiated on the formation of the State Border Commission of Bosnia and Herzegovina in a new composition, which will be proposed by the competent institutions and ministries, and this process is ongoing. Consequently, it is not possible to determine within clear timeframes when the work on the delimitation of Bosnia and Herzegovina with the Republic of Croatia will continue, as well as the ratification of the Border Agreement - they say from the Council of Ministers.

The Chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the President of the Republic of Croatia, back in July 1999, within the framework of the Stability Pact, signed the Agreement on the State Border between Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Republic of Croatia. The border line was drawn on 86 maps TK 1:25,000, each individually signed by the members of the Interstate Diplomatic Commission and forming an integral part of the Border Agreement.

- It is necessary to emphasize that the Hydrographic Institute from Split prepared a study with a "proposal for the construction of the delimitation between Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Republic of Croatia at sea", in the area of Neum, as a starting basis for delimitation. From the documents of previous compositions of the State Border Commission of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which relate to the area contained in the question of Damir Arnaut, it is evident that for the negotiating side from Croatia, after the signing of the Agreement on the State Border, precisely these areas were marked as disputed, and that a request was expressed for a review of the course of the border line in the Neum area.

Given that the Agreement on the State Border between Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Republic of Croatia has not been ratified, and a clearly defined and agreed border line represents the basis for the activities described in the Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), the Ministry of Civil Affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina has no knowledge that the activities contained in the parliamentary questions posed by Arnaut have been conducted - they add from the Council of Ministers.