Deputies in the National Assembly of the Republika Srpska (RSNA) adopted the Draft Law on Immovable Property used for the functioning of public authority under the urgent procedure last night.
45 deputies voted for adopting the Draft Law, four voted against and 15 abstained.
This item was on the agenda on the second day of the 5th special session of the RSNA, and the MPs pointed out that it is essentially the same law, which has already been annulled once.
Pro-Bosnian parties strongly opposed the adoption of the law and stated that the very competence of Republika Srpska to regulate property issues at all is disputed.
“We fully support solving this issue. That the natural resources and all other resources be made available to a significant extent to entities, cantons, cities and municipalities for the benefit of citizens in BiH, but there is a way to do that, this is certainly not the way to reach a solution. I urge you to withdraw this law from the procedure to resolve this issue at the BiH level,” said Ramiz Salkić, from the Party of Democratic Action (SDA).
The law on the same matter – immovable property, which was previously adopted by the RSNA, was suspended in April by the High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina Christian Schmidt, and the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina declared it unconstitutional in September.
Namely, it is a renewed attempt to actualize this issue through a draft law which, according to experts, actually represents a redesigned version of a law that has already been declared unconstitutional.
In its decision from September, the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina stated that the RS does not have the constitutional authority to regulate the legal matter that was the subject of the then immovable property law.
The very announcement that the issue of the draft law, which the Constitutional Court of BiH declared unconstitutional, will be brought up again has caused numerous reactions in the BiH public.
The most explicit in this regard were the members of the presidency – Denis Bećirović and Željko Komšić, who announced that they will submit an appeal to the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina if the RSNA adopts the mentioned law again, Fena news agency reports.
