Yesterday, the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) has not reached an agreement on whether BiH will support the suspension and change of access to the resources of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) to Russia and Belarus.
As it was found out, the decision to suspend and change the access of the EBRD for Russia and Belarus was voted by ministers from the Bosniak and Croat peoples, while ministers from the Serb people were against.
However, we can freely say that part of the blame for this outcome of the vote lies with the Minister of Finance of BiH, Vjekoslav Bevanda. Namely, he is the Governor of BiH in the EBRD and he could have made this decision on his own, without the involvement of the Council of Ministers.
On March 18th, the European Union (EU) Special Representative for BiH and Head of the EU Delegation to BiH Johann Sattler, in the presence of representatives of eight EU embassies, presented the EU Minister of Finance and Treasury Vjekoslav Bevanda with a demarche, that is, the EU’s position on voting on EBRD resolutions.
Considering that Minister Bevanda is the Governor of BiH in the EBRD, the EU ambassadors pointed out that the deadline for voting on two EBRD resolutions concerning the Russian Federation and Belarus expires on April 1st, 2022.
Bevanda then emphasized that cooperation with the EBRD is extremely important for BiH and that it is one of the creditors that finances million-dollar projects throughout BiH, and that within its competencies and capacities it will strive to meet the deadlines set by the EBRD. Unfortunately, that did not happen.
To recall, the EBRD sanctions refer to the fact that the EBRD will not conduct new operations/loans or technical assistance in the Russian Federation and Belarus, and if possible will suspend or cancel the disbursement of tranches in existing operations for these countries.
E.Dz.
Source: Klix.ba
