By a unanimous decision at today’s extraordinary session of the House of Peoples of the FBiH Parliament, the Federation of BiH passed the Law introducing the regular monthly financial veteran’s allowance as a new, additional right for demobilized veterans and family members of deceased or deceased veterans.
The act on this was previously established by the Federal Government in the form of amendments to the law on the rights of demobilized veterans and members of their families and referred to the parliamentary procedure under an urgent procedure.
The House of Representatives approved that act by a large majority of votes at the session, which was also extraordinary two days ago, and in the House of Peoples today all 50 present delegates gave their support.
Remarks were made in both chambers that a law of this type should have been passed much earlier.
The discussants respected the proposer and that the current act should have been considered in a regular and not urgent procedure and a wide public debate should have been foreseen. Some members of the Parliament complained about the very basis for calculating the allowance, and also because the right was not provided for those who defended Bosnia and Herzegovina before April 8, 1992.
In addition to these and other remarks, during the parliamentary debate, the debaters also declared declaratively that they would still support the Law because it is important that it enters the system, and later it needs to be refined and its provisions corrected due to several shortcomings, as they stated.
The draft law on amendments to the Law on the Rights of Veterans and Members of Their Families was established and submitted to the Parliament for declaration under an urgent procedure by the Federal Government, whose Ministry for Veterans and Invalids of the Defense and Liberation War prepared that act.
At the same time, the Government reminded that a Working Group was formed in February 2025 to draft changes to the current veterans’ legislation. The group determined that the right to veteran’s allowance must be the same for all members of the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Croatian Defense Council (HVO) and the Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of BiH, regardless of their place of residence.
The amended law made it possible for demobilized defenders who participated in the defense of Bosnia and Herzegovina for at least one year in the period from April 8, 1992 to December 23, 1995 to receive veteran’s allowance.
Family members of fallen or deceased defenders, who already exercise their rights according to the previous law on veterans’ rights, will also have this right, regardless of the length of the military engagement of the fallen or deceased soldier, their member.
According to the IDDEEA data and the records of the Federal Ministry, about 383,494 beneficiaries could receive the veteran’s allowance.
The working group proposed, and the final text of the Law confirmed, that the amount of this allowance be 1.50 KM for each month spent in the armed forces of RBiH.
It is estimated that the annual payment will require 234.7 million KM from the budget.
The application of the Law should start from January 1 next year, and in the meantime it is necessary to create solutions for users and create all other prerequisites for the application of the law.
