Members of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina Denis Bećirović and Željko Komšić, and the presidents of SDA, SDP, People and Justice Party, Our Party, NES and Party for BiH, Bakir Izetbegović, Nermin Nikšić, Elmedin Konaković, Edin Forto, Nermin Ogrešević and Semir Efendić, called on political actors in BiH to stop with destructive policies and to fully respect the Dayton Peace Agreement, the Constitution of BiH, the final and binding decisions of the Constitutional Court of BiH, as well as signed international agreements.
The political party leaders agreed and signed a Joint Statement on the state property of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in which they reminded that the decisions of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina are final and binding legal positions that the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina is the successor to the state property of the (Socialist) Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the property that belonged to the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
In the description of state property, given by the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, it is clearly stated that state property does not only mean a set of real estate that serves the public authority to carry out its responsibilities, but state property is also a “public good” (sea, seabed, rivers, riverbeds, lakes, mountains and other natural resources, public and transport network, transport infrastructure), which primarily serve all people of the country.
“State property reflects statehood, independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity that belong exclusively to the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina, not to the entities. State property is a fundamental element for state power to be essentially, and not formally, sovereign power. That is why the regulation of state property lies exclusively with the state itself,” stated the signatories of the statement.
They emphasized that the state of BiH and state property cannot and must not be the subject of any political trade because only the state of BiH has the exclusive authority to regulate all issues that relate to state property. Entities, like all other lower levels of government, must respect those decisions.
“The unquestionable continuity between the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the present-day state of Bosnia and Herzegovina unequivocally points to the conclusion that, according to the Succession Agreement, the state property specified in that Agreement was given to the State of BiH, i.e. that Bosnia and Herzegovina is the owner of that property. No unfounded statements can change elementary constitutional facts,” the signatories of the joint statement underline this in their clear position.
Threats of secession issued by official representatives of the entity authorities of the RS and certain political parties that primarily operate in the territory of the entity of the RS, and their refusal to implement the final and binding decisions of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, represent gross attacks on the Dayton Peace Agreement, thereby endangering peace and stability in BiH and the entire region.
The signatories warn the representatives of the international community, especially the guarantor and witness countries of the Dayton Peace Agreement, as well as the Office of the High Representative for BiH (OHR), that it is high time to take decisive steps so that the anti-Dayton and anti-constitutional policies of the authorities of the RS entity would not go into an escalation with unpredictable and unforeseeable consequences.
The absence of a decisive reaction by representatives of the international community to all the anti-Dayton activities we have witnessed so far directed against the sovereignty and territorial integrity of BiH continuously encourages the entity institutions of the RS and the political forces led by Milorad Dodik to continue with activities directed against the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The signatories of the joint statement therefore called on all political actors in Bosnia and Herzegovina to respect the principle of the rule of law and stop generating crises. The consequences of political crises are the departure of young people, the absence of foreign investments, the stopping of economic growth and the decline of living standards, which will not bring good to anyone.
“Instead, we all need to dedicate ourselves to fulfilling the conditions from the Opinion of the European Commission, in order to speed up our path towards the European Union, and to implement the Reforms Program of Bosnia and Herzegovina on the NATO path,” it is concluded in the joint statement on the issue of the state property.
