In September last year, after several months of difficult negotiations on the route of the highway through Brčko, which should improve traffic communication between Sarajevo and Belgrade, an agreement was reached between state, entity and local officials. However, eight months later, the District is again a brake on the implementation of this large infrastructure project.
The proposal for the route of the highway through the District, which should be a traffic junction between the capitals of BiH and Serbia and in general in this region, was exposed to public inspection at the end of last year, which was followed by the procedure of submission of objections.
“People are not aware of where the highway route is planned to go. This is something that has opened up a great deal of discussion. One part claims that they are familiar, the other part claims that they are not. It is enough for me that I have copies of close to 600 signatures of the citizens of the Municipal Council of Brka, who do not support the route proposal,” said Ina Pamukčić-Karagić, SBB’s representative in the District Assembly.
The final proposal of the highway route was not accepted by the members of the Government and representatives in the Assembly from the ranks of the Serbian people. They believe that their vital national interest is threatened, which is the first such case in the history of the District, so a confused situation has been created.
“Now something happened here that is completely unclear to me. I will have to take an interest in what the next steps are for some time, because this is new information for me”, said the Vice President of the Assembly Ivo Filipović (HDZ BiH).
The President of the Assembly Siniša Milić (SNSD) points out that the proposal was not supported because the political representatives from the Serbian people did not agree with it: “And that is a fact. And that should be accepted as a fact and from there start again looking for some kind of compromise”.
“We have to agree and negotiate, because the District of Bosnia and Herzegovina is small. I believe that we will reach certain conclusions very quickly and that we will not be a brake,” said NiP representative Damir Bulčević.
We were unable to get an explanation of how the vital national interest of the Serbs was threatened. That’s why the opposition also spoke out, specifically – until recently the mayor who participated in last year’s negotiations on the highway route.
“The southern route does not suit them. This prevents the development of the city towards the south. This is a practical question. The natural barrier is the river Sava, and the physical barrier would be the highway, which would not allow the development of the city to the south. It can be done east and west. This is a fundamental problem”, states Esed Kadrić, president of the SDA in Brcko.
In the coming days, more information is expected about this whole case, which is another indicator of how politics and, according to unofficial sources, some private interests are hindering the construction of large infrastructure projects, and thus the development of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s economy.
