Bosnia’s three-member inter-ethnic presidency named a prime minister-designate on Monday, in the first step towards forming a national government needed to push through economic reforms sought by the European Union.
Bickering over jobs has slowed the formation of governments at different layers of Bosnia’s complex system since an October election despite appeals from the European Union for swift action. The EU has promised to unblock Bosnia’s stalled bid to join the bloc in exchange for reforms.
The Serb Republic, one of Bosnia’s two autonomous units alongside a Bosniak-Croat federation, formed its own new government in December.
Parliament’s approval of a new president and two vice-presidents for the Federation on Monday paved the way for the formation of governments in the region and at the state level.
Presidennt and Vice-President of the Federation BiH, Marinko Čavara, Melika Mahmutbegović and Milan Dunović, have been elected on yesterday’s session of the House of Peoples of Federal Parliament.
As a reminder, they were chosen by the House of Representatives with 57 votes for, 1 against and 26 neutral.
(Reporting by Daria Sito-Sucic; Editing by Zoran Radosavljevic and Gareth Jones)
(Source: reuters/ klix)
