First Moneyval Law Adopted, Criminal Code to Go Through Regular Procedure

Delegates of the House of Peoples adopted the Law on Prevention of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing with 12 votes in favor and one abstention. Ognjen Tadić, delegate of SDS, did not vote.

As for the second law, which is a Moneyval requirement to prevent Bosnia and Herzegovina from ending up on the blacklist alongside Iran, Ukraine, and North Korea, the Bill on Amendments to the Criminal Code presents a different situation. Right at the beginning, the Bosniak Caucus requested a break, reports Patria News Agency.

Earlier today, before the session of the House of Peoples of the BiH Parliamentary Assembly, Mladen Ćavar, Deputy Minister of Security of BiH, stated that the adoption of the Law on Prevention of Money Laundering and the amendments to the Criminal Code are one package, without which BiH will face sanctions.

After the break, Halid Genjac stated that the Criminal Code is one of the obligations accepted in fulfilling international commitments and that it should go through the regular procedure, as there are not enough votes for a shortened procedure anyway.

Mladen Ivanić stated that he knew the break would allow the "master of procedures" to try out some solutions.

After voting on the shortened procedure, it was established that there was no general majority, so the bill was not even voted on.

Mladen Ćavar expressed disappointment that the package of laws required by Moneyval was not fully adopted. He stated that Bosnia and Herzegovina's fate is now in the hands of FATF, which, according to his information, meets on June 15.

- I regret that we did not seize the opportunity and fulfill our obligation. The fact that the amendments to the Criminal Code are going through the regular procedure could mean that the law will take months to adopt. However, I hope it will happen sooner, but I also want to say that I received an email clearly stating that BiH has been under a special regime since June 1 - Ćavar said.

He added that each member state now needs to respond to Moneyval regarding what they will do concerning BiH.

Bariša Čolak, Minister of Justice of BiH, reiterated once again that the amendments to this law are fully harmonized with Moneyval and that there is no question of encroaching on entity competencies.

- I hope that constructive discussions will be held in the next 15 days and that the adoption of this law will not take months - Čolak said.

Otherwise, SNSD delegates are responsible for this law not being adopted today, and Staša Košarac stated that they defended the rights of RS today, although he did not specify which competencies exactly he was referring to.

- The amendments will not be able to undergo any changes without the will of the RS vote, and that is now clear - said Košarac, adding that the transfer of competencies from RS is much more difficult than what will befall BiH.