Reform laws on hold, priority was purchasing a building for the Indirect Taxation Authority in Banja Luka: Everything goes to working groups

(Patria) - According to the published agenda, the 19th session of the Council of Ministers of BiH was supposed to discuss the Draft Law on Prevention of Conflict of Interest in BiH Institutions, the Draft Law on Courts of BiH, and the Draft Law on Amendments to the Law on Foreigners. However, the collegium of the Council of Ministers of BiH, consisting of Borjana Krišto (HDZ), Staša Košarac (SNSD), and Elmedin Konaković (NiP) on Tuesday, removed these laws from the agenda.

“In accordance with the agreement of the leaders of the Trojka, HDZ, and SNSD, these laws have been withdrawn and working groups will be formed to re-harmonize this text,” said a source from the Council of Ministers of BiH to Istraga.

“Today,” wrote the president of SDP BiH Nermin Nikšić on Monday, “we will sit down and agree on what our predecessors failed to do, and did not even try to solve all these years. We are not afraid of dialogue because we know that we will not agree to anything that will jeopardize anyone's rights, neither citizens nor peoples, and especially we will not agree to anything that would weaken Bosnia and Herzegovina”.

However, after sitting down with Milorad Dodik and Dragan Čović, Nikšić agreed that the Council of Ministers of BiH would approve 70 million marks for the purchase of a building for the needs of the Indirect Taxation Authority in Banja Luka. Reform laws, such as the law on conflict of interest and the law on BiH courts, have been shelved.

The Law on Conflict of Interest is one of the priorities set by the European Commission for Bosnia and Herzegovina in relation to BiH's application for membership in the European Union. International officials have publicly urged BiH authorities several times to adopt this law, but it has mostly been blocked by SNSD and HDZ. In the meantime, the Ministry of Justice of BiH prepared the Draft Law on Prevention of Conflict of Interest in BiH Institutions. The document was sent to all ministers, and it was proposed that the Council of Ministers of BiH consider it on Tuesday. But then Milorad Dodik, Nermin Nikšić, and Dragan Čović sat down, and this reform law was withdrawn from the agenda of the Council of Ministers of BiH session.

The Law on Courts of BiH is also supposed to be one of BiH's reform laws. This law provides for the establishment of a higher court of BiH, which would effectively have the role of the supreme court of BiH.

Therefore, the reform laws that the leaders of the Trojka have spoken about in the past period have been removed from the agenda of the Council of Ministers. The priority, however, was the decision to approve funds for the purchase of the ITA building in Banja Luka.