The Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina held an emergency telephone session today, with the only item on the agenda being the adoption of the Growth Plan from the Reform Agenda. The vote lasted until 2 p.m., but the reform plan ultimately did not receive the necessary support.
Unofficially, SNSD ministers did not vote for the proposal, putting BiH in jeopardy of an additional 108 million euros from the European Union. The document was supposed to be sent to Brussels to prevent the loss of funds from this program.
The EU Delegation to BiH had previously warned that BiH could lose almost a billion euros in investments if the reform process is not initiated. “The failure to adopt reforms blocks the funds and leads to an additional reduction of the amount foreseen for BiH from the Growth Plan by another 10 percent, if the authorities do not submit the finalized Reform Program by the end of September,” the EU Delegation said.
Recall that in July, the European Commission already reduced funds for BiH by 10 percent – from 1.085 billion to 976.6 million euros, a decrease of 108.5 million euros. The BiH authorities were warned on July 17 that a new reduction would follow if they did not submit the requested document by September 30.
