TI BiH: Proposed laws give the appearance of reforms, while avoiding the introduction of real accountability!

(Patria) - Transparency International in BiH (TI BiH) warns that the laws adopted by the House of Representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH, with which the state-level authorities claim to be fulfilling priorities in the EU integration process, still do not enable full transparency and accountability of institutions and judicial office holders.

The Law on Amendments to the Law on the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council (HJPC) has still not fundamentally resolved the issue of potential concealment of property by judicial office holders, while the Law on Freedom of Access to Information is worse than the existing one in some segments and will further enable institutions to hide information of public interest from the public.

It should be recalled that the essence of the reforms to which BiH committed through the 14 priorities was the strengthening of the rule of law and the fight against corruption, where the key was the reform of the judiciary, the adoption and implementation of laws on the protection of whistleblowers and conflict of interest, and the demonstration of concrete results in terms of investigations, indictments, and convictions for corruption offenses, especially those at a high level. However, there is less and less talk about key reform laws, while the state-level authorities claim to be demonstrating progress on the European path by adopting the Law on the Organization of the Wine Market, the Law on Foreigners, and the two aforementioned "reform laws" which will be considered by the House of Peoples on August 30 under an urgent procedure, and which still do not meet the relevant recommendations.

Specifically, the Law on the HJPC did not include all the recommendations of the EU and the Venice Commission and did not resolve the issue of conflict of interest of Council members, which was particularly evident from the amendments included at the session of the Council of Ministers.

Despite the adoption of two amendments during their adoption in the House of Representatives, judicial office holders will be allowed not to report the property of close relatives (e.g., children) who do not live in the same household, and the possibility is left for those who are obliged to provide property data to refuse to do so, which opens up additional space for circumventing the provisions on property reporting.

The possibility is also left for institutions at other levels of government to block the exchange of data on property records, which can further complicate and render meaningless the procedures for checking property records. Adequate sanctions are not prescribed for situations of conflict of interest or when judicial office holders provide false information in their property records.

On the other hand, civil society organizations have been warning since 2021 that the proposed Law on Freedom of Access to Information prescribes too broad a scope of exceptions to the obligation to provide information, which is even broader than the existing one, and does not ensure independence in handling appeals in cases of violation of the Law.

TI BiH, as an organization that submits over 2,000 requests for freedom of access to information annually and is familiar with the practice of institutional conduct, warns that these provisions will further worsen the situation and leave authorities even more room to hide information of public interest. This has also been warned by the European Union and other relevant institutions, but the recommendations have been ignored.

TI BiH therefore calls again to seize the opportunity to improve the proposed laws and their amendments and to amend the disputed provisions. Otherwise, the adoption of inadequate or incomplete solutions that can call into question the purpose of the laws themselves will confirm that the authorities' intention is only to show the appearance of progress on the European path, while avoiding the essence of implementing the reforms necessary to establish a minimum of accountability and rule of law in BiH.