Council of Ministers of BiH discusses Draft Budget for 2022, funds for elections, and work of OSA

SARAJevo, (Patria) - The session of the Council of Ministers of BiH will be held today starting at 12:00 PM. Before the session, a Collegium will be held to consider the proposal of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of BiH Bisera Turković to include in the agenda the Decision on allocating 12.5 million KM for the needs of conducting the election process to the Central Election Commission, which still does not have secured finances, although the legal deadline was May 19. Milorad Dodik announced last night that the decision will be adopted. It is not known whether he reached an agreement with Dragan Čović, as they do not want to risk the High Representative imposing a decision, nor to be declared obstructors of the election process in the PIC communique which meets on June 7 and 8, or if they heeded the messages from the EU which called for the adoption of a special decision.

If the Minister of Finance and Treasury Vjekoslav Bevanda refuses to support this decision today, it would be the third time that securing the necessary financial resources for the CEC is prevented. Bevanda claims the decision is illegal and called for the adoption of the Draft Budget for 2022, which is on today's agenda. However, the budget for the CEC is reduced in the Draft, and if the foreseen amount is not changed, there will not be enough money to conduct the elections. On the other hand, any change requires additional time, which slows down the entire budget adoption process, which in its draft form goes to the Presidency of BiH, which can return it for revision, and only then to the BiH Parliament for adoption in both houses.

Also on the agenda is the Report on the Work of the Intelligence-Security Agency of Bosnia and Herzegovina for 2020 (material marked as confidential), the Annual Platform on Intelligence-Security Policy for 2022 (material marked as confidential), and the Proposal of the Work Program of the Intelligence-Security Agency of Bosnia and Herzegovina for 2022 (material marked as confidential).

Foreign embassies, as well as the European Union, have called on the authorities to adopt, in addition to the Draft Budget, a special decision on allocating funds for the elections, which must be held on October 2. It is possible that if the authorities ignore this again today, or if the HDZ blockades continue, the High Representative Christian Schmidt will use his powers and oblige the authorities with his decision to immediately secure funds for the elections. However, this is not expected before Wednesday, when the two-day session of the Peace Implementation Council (PIC) concludes.