SDA Calls on FBiH Government to Stop Deceiving Citizens with False Promises, and on Schmidt Not to Interfere in the Appeals Process in Strasbourg

(Patria) - The Collegium of the Party of Democratic Action (SDA) held a session in Sarajevo today.

The following conclusions were adopted at the session:

1. The SDA Collegium points to the fact that the arguments of the European Commission, which rejected the Reform Program submitted by the Chairwoman of the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina, are almost identical to the positions of the SDA cantonal prime ministers.

The European Commission did not accept the Reform Plan, just as the SDA prime ministers did not, due to the lack of reforms related to the obligation to fill the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina and implement its rulings, as well as removing ties in decision-making in the Competition Council and the State Aid Council.

We call on the ruling coalition to finally take responsibility and harmonize the Reform Program that will respect all recommendations of the European Commission, so that Bosnia and Herzegovina can receive the funds envisaged by the Growth Plan for the Western Balkans in the amount of two billion KM.

2. The SDA Collegium emphasizes that the Report of the Office for Audit of Institutions in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which found that the FBiH Government spent the existing budget surplus and led the budget into an accumulated deficit of 536 million KM, vividly illustrates the complete incompetence of the current imposed authorities.

The Audit Office Report also confirmed previously published information from the International Monetary Fund, according to which the Federation, for the first time due to the profligacy of the current authorities, moved from a surplus to a budget deficit.

Alongside the creation of a budget deficit and losses of public companies, the FBiH Government is rapidly borrowing, and information on the amount of debt and its purpose is being hidden from the FBiH Parliament and the public.

According to current estimates, the current authorities have borrowed more than one billion KM since taking office, while in just under nine months of this year alone, they have borrowed nearly 700 million KM.

Despite the profligacy and enormous debts, the FBiH Government has not fulfilled its obligations towards workers, pensioners, severely ill patients, camp inmates, and other vulnerable categories.

Instead of the promised increase in workers' incomes, the FBiH Government's wasteful policy has even jeopardized the payment of pensions.

3. The SDA Collegium calls on the FBiH Government to stop deceiving citizens with false promises and to finally adopt a set of fiscal laws that will relieve employers and enable the growth of the minimum wage to 1,000 KM.

The FBiH Government first promised to adopt the set of fiscal laws by the end of 2023, and then during the calendar summer of this year, which they failed to fulfill.

4. The SDA Collegium calls on High Representative Christian Schmidt not to interfere in the appeals process before the European Court of Human Rights, as this would exceed the scope of his mandate.

The High Representative would thereby further deepen suspicions that he is acting in the interest of the official policy of Zagreb and the HDZ BiH.

The European Convention on Human Rights is an integral part of the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina and, as such, has a supra-legal character.

Given this fact, the rulings of the European Court of Human Rights, especially those related to active or passive voting rights, are something that goes beyond the position and role of the OHR.

5. The SDA Collegium requests the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina to urgently issue a decision on a temporary measure that would suspend the application of the new Curriculum in the RS entity until a final decision is made on the appeal of 13 deputies of the House of Representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH, given that textbooks have already been distributed.

6. The SDA Collegium calls on the Prosecutor's Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina not to turn a blind eye to the obvious evidence from the SKY application, which indicates a direct connection between the political party People and Justice and its president Elmedin Konaković with the drug cartel "Tito and Dino", and to check the sources of the enormous financial resources that Konaković's party apparently has at its disposal since its founding.