The session of the House of Peoples of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina was interrupted due to the lack of a quorum, which occurred because a sufficient number of delegates from the Club of the Serbian People were not present at the session.
The Chairman of the House of Peoples, Kemal Ademović, after the break he gave in order to try to ensure a quorum for work, stated that five delegates from the Club of the Bosniak People, three delegates from the Club of the Croatian People and two delegates from the Club of the Serbian People were present in the hall.
“We were denied a quorum from the delegates of the Serbian people. I am interrupting this session, in accordance with the Rules of Procedure,” said Ademović.
The session was interrupted during the discussion on the agenda, which included 69 items, including a number of legal proposals, as well as reports, information…
Today, among other things, the delegates were supposed to consider the Draft Law on the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council of Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as the Draft Law on Amendments to the Law on the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
These are proposals for two laws, the adoption of which is one of the conditions for the opening of negotiations between BiH and the European Union.
The proposers of the aforementioned laws are members of the Collegium of the House of Peoples: Kemal Ademović, Dragan Čović and Nikola Špirić.
The proposed laws were to be considered by the delegates in the first reading (principles), by abbreviated procedure.
The report on achieving an identical text of the Law on Amendments and Supplements to the Law on Salaries and Remunerations in the Institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina should have been presented to the delegates.
The House of Representatives and the House of Peoples of the state parliament previously adopted that law in a different text, after which it was harmonized by the Joint Commission for Harmonization.
As stated by the proponents, the reason for passing the aforementioned law is to eliminate the current bad position of employees in BiH institutions – civil servants, employees, police and other officials as well as professional military personnel, who were damaged by the failure to pass the budget within the constitutional and legal deadlines.
The law defines that “the base for salary calculation is applied from January 1 of the current year for that year, and competent institutions will ensure retroactive payment of the difference in salary, within a period that cannot be longer than 30 days from the date of adoption of the budget, if the budget for the next fiscal year is not adopted by December 31 of the current year”.
It is also impossible for officials’ salaries to grow in parallel with the increase in the wages of employees.
There were several other legal proposals on the agenda, the consideration of which will await the next session of the House of Peoples of the state parliament.
