Transparency International: BiH losing hundreds of millions of EU funds due to failure to adopt Reform Agenda and personal interests

(Patria) - The Council of Ministers of BiH did not consider the Reform Agenda at today's session either, and in July, Bosnia and Herzegovina lost 108.5 million euros, or 10% of the funds provided by the Growth Plan, due to non-adoption. While neighboring countries are already withdrawing funds, BiH is lagging even behind countries that received European perspective much later. Therefore, Transparency International in BiH calls on the House of Representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina to hold a special session and adopt conclusions obliging the Council of Ministers to adopt the Reform Agenda without delay. Authorities in BiH have repeatedly missed deadlines they set themselves, and the European Commission has announced a further 10% reduction if the reform agenda is not adopted by the end of September.

"It is evident from all of this that key decision-makers in BiH continue the years-long obstruction of the European integration process, and the implementation of these reforms is crucial for establishing an effective rule of law and fighting corruption. However, the authorities have once again placed daily politics, personal and party interests above the interests of citizens and foreign policy goals. With such an approach, real problems can only be expected in the process of implementing these measures, considering the level of obstruction we are seeing in the adoption of the Reform Agenda itself, where only two out of 113 measures are currently not agreed upon. These relate to the abolition of entity veto in the Council for State Aid and the obligation to respect decisions and fill the vacant positions of judges in the Constitutional Court of BiH.

Nevertheless, numerous other measures in this document represent obligations that have been repeated for years on the European path and have never been fulfilled, which is why it is evident that the dispute over these two measures represents only a means to sabotage the entire European integration process," Transparency International states.

It should also be noted that the preparation of the Reform Agenda was marked by complete lack of transparency.

"The Council of Ministers of BiH did not communicate about the adoption process, and the public learned about the points of disagreement exclusively from opposing statements of political parties, rather than from the institutions responsible for leading European integration. Parliaments and competent commissions remained silent observers, without attempting to put this issue on the agenda or exert pressure on the executive branch to adopt the Reform Agenda.

This process is a clear example that the coordination mechanism for European integration, established in 2016, is not functioning and is being misused in key processes, from responding to the European Commission's Questionnaire, through the creation of the Integration Program, to the drafting of the Reform Agenda. The voting rights of representatives of all levels of government, combined with the rule of unanimous decision-making, regardless of actual competencies, have turned the coordination mechanism bodies into tools for blockades, rather than for faster reform progress.

Therefore, TI BiH appeals to the Council of Ministers of BiH to adopt the Reform Agenda without delay, taking into account all the requirements of the European Commission, in order to enable access to funds from the Growth Plan for the Western Balkans. We also call on parliaments and competent commissions for European integration to address this issue in thematic sessions and hearings, exert pressure on the executive branch to open the process to the public, and review the functionality of the coordination mechanism.

TI BiH also calls on the competent institutions to stop misusing European integration and for all laws and policies on the European path to be adopted through regular procedures, with mandatory public consultations," the statement said.