The session of the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina(BiH), held yesterday, January 20th, concluded without making key decisions, while some important issues related to the situation in the country were discussed.
The Minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations of BiH, Stasa Kosarac, addressed the media after the session and emphasized that the position of the Council of Ministers was aligned with the Conclusions of the National Assembly of the Republika Srpska (NARS).
“In this regard, I want to say that the implementation of the conclusions of the NARS is an important issue for us, especially from the perspective of the information we had, and that, in the case of our non-attendance, the authentic interpretation of the amended Law on the Council of Ministers from the time of Miroslav Lajcak –I think in 2007 or 2008 – would be applied. This would mean that, in our absence, the next session of the Council of Ministers could be scheduled and decisions could be made without those who are not present. That is why I said that today we acted in line with the conclusions of the NARS,” Kosarac said yesterday.
Kosarac emphasized that “European topics” were not discussed at yesterday’s session, but that if they had been, they would have acted in accordance with the conclusions of the NARS as well.
However, there were some topics that they had to “defend in the interest of the RS,” he added:
“Commenting together with Amidzic, the impossibility of securing about 200 million BAM for the modernization of the Armed Forces of BiH (AFBiH), which is completely unacceptable to us from the perspective of very dramatic, unfounded, inaccurate, and misleading information being spread in the public these days by the Minister of Defense, we very clearly expressed our position on this issue – that it is completely unacceptable to us. We still believe that a very important process we need to carry out together in BiH is the demilitarization and abolition of the AFBiH,” Kosarac said.
The second issue, he continued, was the purchase of certain buildings, i.e., the accommodation capacities of BiH institutions in Istocno Sarajevo and Banja Luka, where they considered it important to be present and vote for the implementation of certain procedures because it was “in the interest of the RS,” as well as the fact that the agenda included the formation of a working group to prepare amendments to certain laws, particularly those relating to the diaspora and supplementary education of children in the so-called BiH emigration.
“We considered that, globally, we need to support the parliamentary initiatives regarding the abolition of VAT on medicines,” he concluded.
He added that the initiatives for the removal of ministers Nesic and Konakovic were also discussed. He further stated that they maintain their position that Konakovic‘s initiative regarding January 9th and declaring it a day of mourning is “a very bad message” and insults the members of one of the constituent peoples.
