Six delegates of the House of Peoples of the BiH PA sent a letter to Schmidt: Prevent the collapse and shutdown of BHRT signal!

(Patria) - Delegates of the House of Peoples of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina Kemal Ademović, Šefik Džaferović, Safet Softić, Džemal Smajić, Dženan Đonlagić, and Zlatko Miletić sent an open letter today to the Office of the High Representative (OHR), addressed to Christian Schmidt.

"URGENT

Dear Sir/Madam,

Regarding the increasingly difficult situation facing the Radio Television of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and our inability as the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina to act institutionally and enable the normal functioning of the Radio Television of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and with the aim of preventing the complete collapse of this very important state institution, we are writing to you with a request to use your powers and prevent the complete shutdown of the signal of the Radio Television of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Namely, as you are probably already aware, the House of Peoples of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina has been in almost complete blockade for a long time due to the alternating denial of quorum by delegates from the Club of the Serb People (delegates of SNSD) and delegates from the Club of the Croat People (delegates of HDZ), which prevents the holding of sessions. In the last few months alone, eight sessions of the House of Peoples of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina have been scheduled, which were not held for the aforementioned reasons.

Thus, due to the lack of quorum, the following were interrupted: the 17th urgent session, scheduled for 17.7.2025, the continuation of the 16th session, scheduled for 3.11.2025, the 17th regular session, scheduled for 6.11.2025, the 19th urgent session, scheduled for 14.11.2025, the 20th urgent session, scheduled for 20.11.2025, the 21st urgent session, scheduled for 23.12.2025, the 18th session, scheduled for 21.1.2026, and the 22nd urgent session, scheduled for 17.2.2026. The issue of BHRT was supposed to be on the agenda of the 19th urgent session, the 17th regular session, and the 22nd urgent session, which were not held.

At the aforementioned sessions, we intended to propose conclusions that would concretely address this problem, but for the reasons already mentioned, we were prevented from doing so. We intended to propose the following conclusions:

1. That the Council of Ministers of BiH and the Ministry of Communications and Transport of BiH urgently and without delay adopt a decision to allocate funds in the amount of 22 million KM to BHRT as soon as possible, ad hoc, from the surplus revenues of the Communications Regulatory Agency of BiH (RAK).

2. That the Council of Ministers of BiH urgently and without delay adopt a decision to allocate the amount of 20 million KM from the current budget reserve and that it be allocated to BHRT. Due to all of the above, we call on you for urgent intervention to save BHRT, and to act in accordance with your powers and enable the implementation of the aforementioned conclusions.

Namely, recently the undersigned delegates from the House of Peoples held a meeting with the trade union and management of BHRT, at which we were informed that the aforementioned funds are necessary for the urgent payment of 22 million KM for the settlement of BHRT's debts to the EBU, then 2.5 million KM for contributions based on final court judgments, 300,000 KM for gas debt, in order to avoid account blocking at the end of this month.

We remind you that this would not mean the stabilization of the situation in BHRT, as a systemic solution and consistent implementation and respect of Article 23 of the Law on the Public RTV System of Bosnia and Herzegovina (“Official Gazette of BiH”, no. 78/05, 32/10, 51/15 and 25/16) by all three public RTV services in Bosnia and Herzegovina is required for that. The actual situation in BHRT and their debts exceed even these amounts, so, according to our information, BHRT owes 56 million KM for taxes and contributions on employee salaries, 10 million KM for VAT, 22 million KM for debt to the EBU, 2 million KM for debt to Elektroprivreda BiH, 300,000.00 KM for gas debt, 2 million KM to other domestic suppliers, etc. It should be emphasized here that BHRT also has receivables from court cases with Radio-Television of Republika Srpska, but these receivables are publicly obstructed and disputed.

In light of all of the above, we hope for your understanding of the importance of this issue and at the same time we ask and expect you to act as soon as possible, because the current situation in BHRT is very difficult.

Thank you in advance", they state in their address.