Ministers, representatives, delegates, deservedly or not, are officially on vacation from Monday. A break in the State Parliament. Left behind are unfinished laws, numerous obligations, open topics, blockades and buildings in a neglected state. In effect, the positive part, only six laws. Everything they’ve done since the beginning of the year. The effects are almost imperceptible. There is little material for analysis.
Halls closed, benches empty, time stopped. And it’s been like that for years. The air conditioner doesn’t even work this year.
“We cool down with papers,” said Kemal Ademovic, Deputy Speaker of the House of Peoples of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) (NiP).
“The way we work, this air conditioning system is enough for us”, assesses Srdjan Amidzic, Minister of Finance and Treasury of BiH (SNSD).
The end of torment. In the parliamentary calendar, it is time for a collective vacation. If they have something to rest from –because they can’t really brag about the results.
“I think there were periods where we could be satisfied, just as there are periods for which you don’t need to be a great political expert to say: well, these people stopped everything,” says Sasa Magazinovic, president of the SDP Caucus in the BiH House of Representatives.
“Grade from 1 to 5 – zero”, says Milan Dunovic, president of the DF Caucus in the BiH House of Representatives.
True, they didn’t work much or efficiently. The House of Representatives sat 11 times, and the House of Peoples seven times. On March 8th, everything was urgent in both houses. From the session, procedures to the law. On the same day, they adopted the long-awaited Law on the Prevention of Conflicts of Interest, and the House of Peoples also suspended the procedure for the Law on the Prevention of Financing of Terrorist Activities and the Law on Civil Service. All reform and all adopted under pressure from the European Union (EU) because they were a condition for opening negotiations. Four months later, none of them applied. Just like some from the previous year.
“The new law on the Prevention of Conflict of Interest has brought significant improvements, but its implementation has been delayed by six months, that is, until September of this year. The competition for the appointment of members of the new independent Commission that will decide on the conflict of interest was announced only at the end of May and it is unlikely that it will be completed in time. The Law on Prevention of Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorist Activities still does not meet all international standards and recommendations,” said Transparency International BiH.
The Law on the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council (HJPC)is already passing through the Parliament for the third time, but it has not yet reached its essence. Through changes in the law, the deadline for the establishment of the Department of Integrity is postponed. The government does not listen to criticism.
“I think a step forward has been made,” believes Stasa Kosarac, Minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations of BiH (SNSD).
”None of them are ideal. I would say that each one is optimal in these political circumstances. That’s the most we could get,” says Elmedin Konakovic, Minister of Foreign Affairs of BiH (NiP).
And so until March, until the intervention of the High Representative in the BiH Election Law, after the Parliament failed to adopt technical changes to this law for almost four months. It is a move that the state parliamentarians from theRepublika Srpska (RS) did not go through.
“There has been a stagnation since March and the recommendation for opening negotiations and meeting additional conditions – several laws that will never make it to the agenda,” pointed out Serif Spago, president of the SDA Caucusin the BiH House of Representatives.
“The old practice from the previous period continues, that the Council of Ministers is invisible, that there are no legal solutions, that there are no concrete proposals,” says Branislav Borenovic, PDP representative in the BiH House of Representatives.
The blockade occurred as an expected scenario. The BiH House of Representatives is at full capacity, but without a majority for specific laws. Since May, due to the Law on the Constitutional Court of BiH, the House of Peoples has not had a quorum for regular sessions. The Bosniak Caucus is empty, except for emergency sessions. So, at such a last session, the budget of state institutions for the current year was adopted more than seven months late.
“One session – some block. Second session – others block. In the end, it doesn’t matter who is blocking, what matters is the damage to the state,” emphasizes Semsudin Mehmedovic, an independent representative in the BiH House of Representatives.
“When the smallest common ground is found, it is possible to make progress, but I am not a great optimist, bearing in mind the political agenda carried out by the ruling coalition, which is the ruling coalition in BiH entity of RS”, says Denis Zvizdic, deputy chairman of the BiH House of Representatives (NiP).
So, not a step further. The European path of BiH in the shadow of the political crisis. Reform laws far from procedural. The law on the court, it seems, will have to wait a long time for the agreement of the coalition. The scope of the Personal Data Protection Act is currently only a proposal on the agenda in the Council of Ministers. And, although everything stands, it is important to remind that parliamentarians are properly paid for not working. And at least six times more than other employed citizens, Federalna writes.
