Chairwoman of the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Borjana Kristo, stated yesterday after the Council’s session that out of the 95 items scheduled, the Collegium did not agree to keep all items on the agenda, and that there was no way to consider some matters that have been waiting before the Council of Ministers of BiH for a long time.
“These are certain reports from specific institutions. I regret that this is being done due to some political squabbles and perhaps certain colleagues and institutions trying to score day-to-day political points,” said Kristo.
She added that they did not have agreement yesterday on appointments to certain positions, including the deputy director of the State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA).
“In addition to what we had, under current issues, I informed about certain matters that are coming to us, which concern our responsibility toward certain representatives, the Parliamentary Assembly, the Collegium, which is asking us about certain things, the institution of the Ombudsman, and regarding the adoption of the Draft Reform Agenda. These were all matters we addressed today,” said Kristo yesterday, adding that despite everything, she can be satisfied.
She also spoke about the reasons for the reduction of funds allocated for BiH within the Growth Plan for the Western Balkans by 10 percent.
“It is our responsibility that we ultimately failed to finalize the draft text of the Reform Agenda, because it had a large number of comments. We adopted it with all the comments. We adopted the Draft Reform Agenda in a way that tasked the competent ministries to harmonize or resolve those comments with other levels of government,” said Kristo, adding that a good part of the ministries have completed their tasks.
She stated that she informed the Council of Ministers of BiH yesterday about the information she currently has on the matter.
“Directorate for Economic Planning has cleared all comments; there are two comments that are basically redundant and don’t really count as comments. The Ministry of Finance has cleared all comments; the Directorate for European Integration has 20 comments; the Ministry of Communications and Transport has about 40, of which 30 have been harmonized, and 5-6 comments remain. Today, they reported that they do not have an agreement with representatives of institutions of Republika Srpska (RS), who do not attend meetings, and they were unable to reach an agreement. Regarding justice, there are also four disputed comments with RS institutions. The Ministry of Civil Affairs has the largest number of comments. They have about 75 comments, and no one from other levels of government is responding to meeting invitations to work on harmonization. We said today that we expect the ministry to continue clearing, to invite representatives of other institutions in terms of their competence, and to obtain clear input from them,” stated the Chairwoman of the Council of Ministers of BiH yesterday.
According to her, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has submitted that they have “cleared” their part, and the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations says they have sent everything and are expecting responses from four cantons, from which they have not yet received any approval.
“I hope that, with clarifications, and with the obligation and responsibility that every minister must have, and then all of us in the Council of Ministers, we will be able to meet the deadline we set for the adoption of the Draft Reform Agenda, which expires on August 11th, so that we can inform the European Commission that we have harmonized all these comments, sent them for their feedback, and after receiving their response, proceed to signing the agreement with the institutions of the European Commission for the disbursement of funds, or primarily, to prevent the implementation of the measure set with a deadline until the end of September,” explained Kristo.
She said that she understands the European Commission and that she is in daily contact with them.
“They did not make this decision to harm BiH; in fact, it all comes down to us, because the essence was that they need to allocate their funds, the end of the year is approaching, and it must be precisely known where the funds go, and for what purposes, the funds earmarked for BiH. It is up to us at this moment, up to all ministries, all levels of government, whether they will be diligent so that on August 11th, we can have a harmonized Draft Reform Agenda. August 11th is the deadline we set. By the end of September, we need to send it to them because of the second deadline, which they are warning us about concerning an additional 10 percent,” said Kristo.
She emphasized that she sees no reason at this moment why the remaining comments cannot be cleared by the end of July.
When asked by journalists about the appointment of the Minister of Security of BiH, Kristo replied that she does not have a proposal for the appointment of a minister, and that this is a matter of coalition agreement.
Regarding the dismissal of Darko Culum from the position of director of SIPA, Kristo recalled that on March 18th, the director of the Agency submitted a request for dismissal.
“Immediately after that, I convened an extraordinary session of the Council of Ministers where we were supposed to consider information on the situation in SIPA, because the deputy had been dismissed, and at that moment, the director submitted a request. At the Council of Ministers session, we did not have agreement to even adopt the agenda, because we needed to adopt the information with a proposal of measures to be taken in SIPA. As for me, as Chairwoman of the Council of Ministers, I have done my job,” Kristo explained.
