The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe adopted the Resolution on BiH. A total of 496 deputies voted in favour, 132 were against and 67 abstained.
After quite long and exhausting debate, a balanced resolution was adopted at the end, which, on the one hand, welcomes moves such as the agreement on the Reform Agenda, the organization of the census and the submission of applications for membership in the EU, while on the other hand, it expresses great concern about the lack of results regarding the implementation of the Strategy for processing war crimes and completing the process of finding missing persons.
With this resolution, political representatives in BiH are urged to adopt a new Election Law no later than six months before the General Elections 2018.
There is a concern expressed over the increasing disrespect for the rule of law in BiH as well as regret when it comes to the decision of the RS not to enforce the decision of the Court of BiH regarding registration of military assists, but also over the decision to hold the referendum on the Day of the RS, despite the verdict of the Constitutional Court.
One of the requests in the resolution is the establishment of a supreme court on the state level or appellate court within the Court of BiH, as well as a new law on HJPC.
“Membership in the Council of Europe is not free. Anyone who wants to be a member has to fulfil certain obligations. I want to send a message to Sarajevo and Banja Luka that we have a problem. It is time to accept the responsibility, to work and make BiH an equal member of the Council of Europe. I do not want you to say that it is impossible to make a functional state for BiH, you are in parliament, people voted for you and that is not a valid argument. Do not say that it is impossible, because you are responsible for it,” said one of reporters of the Council of Europe, Tiny Kox.
(Source: nap.ba)
