After the House of Peoples of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina adopted the Law on Border Control in an urgent procedure today, the Chairman of the Bosniak People’s Club in the House of Peoples of the BiH PA, Šefik Džaferović, stated that he and the entire opposition part of that club voted against the law, believing that it contained some provisions that could cause serious problems in application tomorrow.
“There are three important issues and they relate to the issue of signs, commercial, administrative signs and, as the law says, welcome signs, then the issue of data distribution and sharing of data among all agencies within BiH and the issue of approval for the transfer of weapons across the state border by diplomatic and consular missions. The essence of this law is that it has erased an entire concept called a protective area. The existing law, in addition to the concept of a border line, border crossing, state border, protective zone, also had the concept of a protective area,” Džaferović told reporters.
According to the previous law, that protective area, or rather that zone, was 300 meters deep into the territory of BiH from the border line. In that area, as Džaferović added, no signs could be placed except for traffic signs and signs indicating the border crossing of the state of BiH.
“The current law has regulated this matter in such a way that administrative, tourist and welcome signs can be placed 50 meters from the border line, as the law states,” Džaferović added.
Delegate Džemal Smajić (Bosniak People’s Club) stated that, if we want to experience our country as a country in the true sense of the word, it is not normal that before the state flag, before the state welcome to the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina, there is the flag of an administrative unit, an entity or welcome, etc.
The government, as delegate Dženan Džonlagić (Bosniak People’s Club) said, adopts laws that are not European standards.
“This is the most important message that will probably be confirmed by the European Commission’s report, as in December last year when they wrote very clearly that the law on the prevention of conflict of interest, public procurement and the law on the HJPC are not in line with European standards and that is why there is no date for the start of negotiations,”stated Džonlagić.
These two laws (on border control and personal data protection) which, as he said, are only a statistical norm, unfortunately, according to their content in Brussels will probably be assessed as laws that are not in line with European standards.
“I would like it to be different, but I believe that when they review the content of the law in Brussels, the assessment will be that way and I do not believe that the European Council will make a decision on the start of BiH’s negotiations with the EU in March,” believes Džonlagić.
Nenad Vuković (PDP), a delegate from the Serbian People’s Club, said that he supported both legal solutions that were at the emergency session, reminding that his colleagues in the House of Representatives did the same a few days ago.
“It should be emphasized that these two legal solutions do not conflict with the interests of the RS, that they do not encroach on the competences of the RS anywhere, that there is no transfer of competences and that it is a good thing to adopt these laws as part of the conditions when it comes to moving towards the EU,” said Vuković.
