Council of Ministers session: BiH (will not) follow EU sanctions on Russia and Belarus

(Patria) - A session of the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina is scheduled to be held today, and the agenda includes Determining the vote regarding the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) resolutions - second round of voting, in relation to sanctions against Russia and Belarus due to the aggression against Ukraine. In the first round of voting, ministers from RS did not support these resolutions. For this decision to be adopted at today's session, at least two votes from ministers of each constituent nation are required.

The Governor of BiH to the EBRD, Minister of Finance and Treasury Vjekoslav Bevanda, has until April 1st to declare his vote.

The resolutions concern the EBRD not conducting new operations, i.e., loans or technical assistance in the Russian Federation and Belarus, and where possible, suspending or cancelling the disbursement of tranches in existing operations for these countries.

Before the last session of the BiH Council of Ministers, where there was no agreement, Bevanda was handed a démarche by the European Union's Special Representative for BiH and Head of the EU Delegation to BiH, Johann Sattler, and the ambassadors and representatives of eight other EU member states regarding the vote in the EBRD. The EU expects BiH, as a candidate country for EU membership, to follow the EU's policy and join the sanctions.

Also on the agenda is the decision on a temporary ban on the export of certain wood assortments, the Draft Memorandum of Understanding and Cooperation on the implementation of the infrastructural project "Construction of Trebinje Airport" between the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Government of the Republic of Serbia, several agreements with Croatia and Montenegro, as well as the proposal of the decision on the amount of the base salary for employees in the institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina for 2022.