KS Assembly Adopts Amendments to KS Constitution

Deputies in the KS Assembly today discussed amendments to the KS Constitution. Minister of Justice Mario Nenadić stated in his address that the obligation to regulate certain issues in the KS Constitution stems from international and domestic documents, reports the Patria agency.

15:15

Deputies of the KS Assembly today adopted amendments 50 to 57 to the KS Constitution, as well as the decision on the promulgation of amendments to the KS Constitution which will enter into force at midnight on July 31, 2017, and will be published in the Official Gazette. 

15:00

Consultations with the four mayors of city municipalities and Mayor Abudulah Skaka, following the deputies' discussion, were held by KS Prime Minister Elmedin Konaković and Minister of Justice Mario Nenadić, and it was agreed that there are no concerns that local self-government units will lose some competencies with the adoption of amendments to the KS Constitution.  

12:45

The proposed amendments establish the independent competencies of the City of Sarajevo as a local self-government unit and the method of financing local self-government units in the Canton, align with the city's competencies established by Article VI.A of the Constitution of the Federation of BiH, implement the decision of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina on the constituent status of all three peoples in the territory of the Federation of BiH, establish official languages and scripts in the Canton of Sarajevo, regulate the composition and mandate of the City Council, establish the property of local self-government units, and set deadlines for the implementation of amendments and the transfer of competencies by local self-government units.

These amendments do not change the territorial scope of the City of Sarajevo, but they ensure the method by which, when determining the independent competencies of the City of Sarajevo in areas within the jurisdiction of local self-government units related to water supply, wastewater collection and treatment, public cleanliness maintenance and solid waste management, natural gas supply, district heating, organization and improvement of public urban transport, the Canton will be entrusted with performing these activities until the conditions are met for the municipalities and the City to take over the relevant competencies.

The adoption of amendments to the KS Constitution requires a two-thirds majority vote in the Canton Assembly, unlike the procedure for adopting laws, which requires a simple majority.

Following the deputies' discussion, Prime Minister Konaković stated that these amendments are the beginning of solving a major problem and ensuring the conditions for implementing the rulings of the Constitutional Court of the FBiH.