Sanin Bogunić, President of the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council of Bosnia and Herzegovina (HJPC BiH), reacted to reports about the possible suspension of funding for external experts tasked with monitoring the work and advising the the HJPC Department responsible for the process of collecting and analyzing data from judges and prosecutors.
“I am surprised and concerned because of this information, because after the adoption of Amendments to the Rulebook we did not receive any hint or formal announcement by the Delegation of the European Union to Bosnia and Herzegovina, or Brussels about the possibility of funding termination for external experts,” Bogunić said.
He stated that the amendments to the Rulebook were adopted at the previous Council session after months of thorough review and as a result of shortcoming identified earlier. They increased the transparency of the process (the introduction of a public call on the Council’s website) and eliminated the potential discrimination of the candidates (all eligible candidates are allowed to apply).
“We insist on transparency and the entire process of proposing candidates and the implementation of this procedure remains in the hands of the international partner. I must emphasize that according to the Law on the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the HJPC is solely authorized for a final selection of those external experts, and there are currently two experts in the Council, along with their staff, assistants, and translators.
“There is no danger of a slowdown in the already established process of verifying the assets of judges and prosecutors. Everything is proceeding smoothly and will continue to do so in accordance with the regulations in force,” Bogunić said.
The European Union considers suspending funding for the asset verification process of judges and prosecutors conducted by the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council (HJPC), because this judicial institution from Bosnia and Herzegovina failed to comply with the previous agreement. The EU Delegation confirmed to Klix.ba that they are considering suspendingfunding for the asset verification process, but the decision has not yet been made.
The HJPC made changes to the law regarding the way of external asset verification of judges and prosecutors despite the warnings by the EU it will make the process inefficient. According to Detektor, the Director for the Western Balkans at the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Neighborhood and Enlargement Negotiations sent two letters to the HJPC President, Sanin Bogunić, warning him that the draft amendments they plan to adopt does not align with their previous agreement and raises concerns regarding the efficiency, credibility, and independence of the external monitoring. But the HJPC ignored this.
The Rulebook is amended in the part referring to the selection of the external experts in the Department for the Verification of Assets of Judicial Office Holders. The HJPC members decided that the external experts will be selected through the public callfor applications, and committee members will be appointed by the European Union and the HJPC. But, the EU did not supportthose changes and emphasized that the HJPC should not shortlist experts in order to avoid the conflict of interest.
The Asset Verification of Judges and Prosecutors was the subject of the amendment to the Law on HJPC in March 2024, which the European Union requested from Bosnia and Herzegovina in order to move closer to the opening of negotiations. Back then we amended the existing law and received a green light for opening of negotiations, but we were told we must also make a new Law on HJPC, Klix.ba writes.
