The Chairwoman of the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Borjana Kristo, at the session of the House of Representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH (PABiH), which was dedicated to the topic “Continuation of BiH’s European path with a focus on the adoption of the Reform Programme for the implementation of the Growth Plan for the Western Balkans,” said that she will continue working with the same passion and intensity when it comes not only to the draft Reform Agenda but in general to BiH’s European path, and that she will not tire on that path.
She emphasized that on that path, there is no position or opposition.
“I have not heard anyone today say ‘we are not for the European path’. Therefore, we must not only declare ourselves in favor but practically show it through the way we make decisions, whether from the domain of executive power or those related to legislative power, and not only at the level of the PABiH but at all levels in BiH,” Kristo stated.
Commenting on the objections of some deputies that they did not receive the material for consideration of this topic, she stated that the Council of Ministers did not receive any request from the House of Representatives, except for the notification that the session was being held.
She said that she prepared information that speaks about the facts and steps that the Council of Ministers of BiH took, “so that we could reach the adoption of the Reform Agenda with the list of measures and submit it to the European Commission.”
“These are reforms that concern the whole of BiH, from the aspect of its constitutional structure, from the aspect of its competences, and we must approach this both because of the way decisions are made and because all those measures listed in that draft Reform Agenda will be an obligation to implement in accordance with constitutional competences at all levels of government,” Kristo said.
She added that they sent the Reform Agenda to the European Commission and that they expect comments from it and are working further so that by the end of the year they can proceed with concluding the agreement on the instrument, on the loan, and withdraw the first tranche of 68 million euros, while all other funds being discussed are exclusively related to the implementation of reforms.
She emphasized that even those funds “that we say we lost because we did not adopt the first set deadline of 10 percent, we have the opportunity to make up for.”
Those are funds in the total pool that apply to all countries in the region. Therefore, if we are successful in implementing reforms, we can withdraw all the funds at this moment. It all depends on how we will approach this task that is currently before us – said the Chairwoman of the Council of Ministers of BiH.
She emphasized that out of a total of 113 proposed reforms, by the end of 2024, consensus had been reached on 111, while two reforms, which related to the Constitutional Court and competition through state aid, remained unresolved.
She added that on June 27th, the draft Reform Agenda with 772 comments was adopted, and that based on the unanimous conclusion of the working team, its further harmonization continued through the ministries of the Council of Ministers, in cooperation with all competent levels of government in BiH.
“The Reform Agenda document has been sent to the European Commission and is in interdepartmental consultations in the directorates of the European Commission responsible for specific reform areas. The European Commission will return the document with comments collected from the directorates. The comments will likely request that something in some text be added, clarified, described, or possibly changed. At this moment, we don’t know. We only expect, because of the consultations we had in the longer phase of adoption, since we also consulted the Delegation, that is, the European Commission, that there might not be too many comments, but we will have to see,” Kristo stated.
She further added that the BiH side needs to adopt those comments, refine the document, and practically harmonize it with the European Commission in the end.
“That means we are waiting for that response. In parallel, while we wait for it, we are working on establishing a structure for monitoring the implementation of reforms, including monitoring, reporting, and evaluation, as well as appointing coordinators for reforms and growth, so that we can complete this first task that awaits us in the conclusion, i.e., ratification of these two agreements. Therefore, I want to say in conclusion that BiH has made significant progress in preparing the part of the Growth Plan that refers to the agreed and submitted Reform Agenda, because that represents one key prerequisite for using funds from the Instrument for Reforms and Growth, as well as the continuation of European integration and ensuring sustainable economic growth. We remain committed to that European path,” said at the end of her address to the deputies the Chairwoman of the Council of Ministers of BiH, Borjana Kristo.
