Representatives in the House of Representatives of the state parliament two days ago severely criticized the Delegation of the European Union in our country for, as they pointed out, different approaches and tampering with the draft law on freedom of access to information, which BiH must adopt on the EU path.
According to the claims of a part of civil society, as well as the official position of the European Union, there are points in the draft law that are not in accordance with European regulations.
Saša Magazinović said that they received contradictory messages from the EU Delegation.
Namely, while the official position in the letter is that the law should be adopted together with the amendment, unofficially the deputies received messages to adopt the law even if the amendment is not accepted.
Because of this, Magazinović sent a sharp criticism to the Delegation of the European Union, and he was joined in this by other members of parliament and positions and the opposition.
This morning, after stormy criticism, the EU Delegation announced that they are cooperating with the BiH authorities on all legislative acts concerning the country’s European path.
“Since it was granted candidate status, an incentive was given for concrete progress on that path as well as for the adoption of several important reform laws that will be in accordance with the recommendations from the Commission’s Opinion, analytical and annual reports for the country, as well as through the body for the Agreement on stabilization and association”, they state.
The role of the EU Office in this process, in close cooperation with the Commission, is to help the authorities adopt laws that are in line with European standards and the acquis in order to enable the country to progress on its European path.
“To this end, the Office of the EU assesses whether the legislation prepared by the relevant ministries and which will eventually be adopted by the Council of Ministers is in accordance with European standards, and makes comments to the Council of Ministers and the Parliament about any shortcomings. At the same time, the Office of the EU it also suggests how Parliament can correct them in order to achieve the highest level of compliance with relevant standards and best practices,” the reaction points out.
They emphasize that there were examples in which not all deficiencies were resolved, but in which the laws were still an improvement of the current legislation, and were not fully aligned with EU recommendations.
“The existing draft Law on Freedom of Access to Information is one such example. There are other laws, such as amendments on integrity within the HJPC Law that are currently in the parliamentary procedure, where this is not the case. Although assessments of specific laws are made from case by case, the European Commission is the one that will assess the level of progress in the upcoming report for the country based on the adopted reforms”, concluded the EU Delegation to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Klix.ba reports.
