Pivić: Most funds go to RS and cantons with a Croat majority, let the government change the Working Group and adopt the Reform Agenda

(Patria) - Prime Minister of Zenica-Doboj Canton (ZDK) Nezir Pivić held a press conference today to clarify the problems that accompanied the Reform Agenda document, which did not have the consent of four cantons where the prime ministers are from SDA, which is interpreted as blocking the EU path. Pivić rejected such claims and said that they gave conditional consent, and that Borjana Krišto interpreted it in a way that someone is against it.

"A reform of particular importance was deleted, which is the appointment of all judges of the Constitutional Court of BiH from RS and the implementation of decisions throughout the territory of BiH. That was the initial reform. After the meeting between Varhelyi and Dodik and partners in the Council of Ministers, we received a second proposal of the document to specify the resolution of the issue of international judges by the end of 2027. This was unacceptable to us, with all members of the Working Group accepting such a solution. This reform is completely deleted because there was no agreement, which is unacceptable to us. That is the reason why we gave conditional consent.

As members of the working team, we requested that some reforms at least be mentioned in a footnote, which were deleted at the request of RS. The need to delete the word 'state' appeared in several places at the request of RS, and this did not bother the other members," explained the Prime Minister of Zenica-Doboj Canton.

Pivić reminded that the distribution of funds that were supposed to come, but ZDK and cantons with a Bosniak majority are not represented, but RS and cantons with a Croat majority, is also disputed.

"I tried to calculate by projects, approximately around 700 million would be directed to RS and cantons with a Croat majority, and we consider this an uneven distribution of funds. It was requested that state institutions be replaced by entity institutions, which is the jurisdiction of state institutions according to the Constitution. We only asked for our suggestions to be considered or for the reforms being worked on to be mentioned so that the EU Directorate would know. The question is whether Borjana Krišto had the right to interpret our decision," he said.

He addressed the accusations that the coordination mechanism was used here, stating that this is not true.

"The Council of Ministers of BiH has already adopted the Rules of Procedure of the Working Group, which prescribes how decisions are made. I am surprised that those who accuse today and refer to the coordination mechanism do not know this, they should have prepared better and adopted the Reform Plan," added Pivić.

He stated that the deadline for responding to the Reform Agenda was short, to respond to 160 pages of text within a few hours.

"The EU called on the authorities to resolve this. Let them change the decision and let them exclude the cantons. I have considered from the beginning that the cantons should not be there. Most of these issues are not issues for cantons but for the Council of Ministers of BiH.

It is a much greater damage to agree to adopt such an unequal distribution of funds. And these remaining 111 reforms have been amended by numerous interventions from RS. HDZ agreed to sign this document because they are receiving huge funds for cantons with a Croat majority.

Let the government take responsibility and let them amend the decisions on the Working Team and, based on that amendment, let them vote for the Growth Plan," said Pivić.