Questionnaire of the European Commission is divided into negotiation chapters (33 of them), with additional chapters that refer to the institutional organization and “other” questions.
Some of the questions that the EU is interested in refer to copyrights, thus BiH needs to explain how its legislature, in addition to software protection, protects the rights of producers of computer chips. Of course, if this is not a part of the legislature and if the laws are not harmonized with EU directives, BiH must explain whether it plans to pass one such law and when. In addition, BiH must explain in which way the satellite broadcasting is protected.
Special questions are dedicated to the protection of commodity brands, in which way BiH regulate who can and in which way they can use some global logos or how this issue is going to be regulated. EU also wants to know how business secrets are legally protected in BiH and what actions are taken if they are unlawfully used or distributed.
One of the questions refers to actions which are taken with seized counterfeit goods – are they destroyed, who pays for the costs of destruction, and examples in the past three years.
State aid is researched in the EU every day, including ways in which it is distributed and criteria for allocation of state aid. Now Brussels wants to know who is relevant for the allocation of state help in BIH and of course, if the process is harmonized with EU rules. Of course, one of the sub-questions is if that body is under political influence and if it asks for instruction from any government, institution, governmental body and the like.
Brussels is especially interested in the banking sector in BiH. In the questionnaire, they want the BiH authorities to provide name and address (in singular form) of the body that supervises the work of loan institutions (as a reminder, there are two entity agencies for banking), as well as to provide the information about employees in that body and qualifications necessary for employment in that body.
When it comes to telecommunications, Brussels is interested in the number of operators in BiH, how many users use which mobile network, who owns the operator and how much do they earn, and authorities are also expected to provide information about costs of internet for kindergartens, elementary and high schools, and higher education institutions, what the speed of that internet is, and the same information is required for households, small, and medium enterprises.
Agricultural policy is one of the most important policies in the EU and the most incentives from EU funds are intended for food production. BiH must explain who deals with agricultural policy, who gives aid to farmers, how are requests for subsidiaries prepared, how are they collected, distributed, processed, controlled, whether there is a register of agricultural producers or not, etc. BiH must explain how it is preparing for the withdrawal of IPARD funds that the EU gives for the development of agriculture, which institution deals with that and does there exist a strategy for the development of rural areas.
Brussels is interested in quotas, taxes and especially in which way BiH protects the production of meat, grains, olive oil, tobacco, fruits, and vegetables with bananas as a special item, and a special category which includes bees and beekeeping, ethyl alcohol, potato and – silkworms.
EU also wants to know in which way the internal market of animal semen, oocytes and embryos is controlled. They also want to know the exact number of cattle, sheep, goats, pigs and equine animals, what are they fed with and, of course, who controls it all.
Fishing is a special category. Brussels wants to know how much fish was produced in BiH “over the past several years”, all nicely divided into categories according to the types of fish. An especially interesting question is where the BiH fishing fleet docked, how many fishing boats BiH has, what fuel they use and what is the type of gear shift on those ships!
When it comes to transportation policy of BiH, Brussels is interested in state aid in air, sea, railway and road transportation of goods and passengers, including urban and suburban transportation. Apart from all the details related to the driving exams, BiH must provide information about all accidents, the entire database if there is one, and if there is no database then BiH must state when it will be established.
Protection of passengers has always been an important issue in the EU, so Brussels wants to know what the minimum of information is that passengers can obtain in all forms of transportation in BiH, how they can buy tickets, what happens in case of delays, where the passengers can appeal, is it a body independent from transporters and what penalties are prescribed if the rights of passengers are violated.
When it comes to the energy sector, apart from the information about how much electricity BiH produced by burning fossil fuels or in hydropower plants in 2000, 2005, 2010 and 2015, Brussels is also interested in plans for 2020, 2030 and 2040, including possible plans for construction of nuclear power plants and all activities related to the use of uranium, plutonium and thorium.
“Who in BiH can purchase, possess and sell nuclear material,” the European Commission wants to know.
(Source: faktor.ba)
