The National and University Library of Bosnia and Herzegovina(NUB BiH) is working at full capacity, all employees are at work and continue to provide services to users, confirmed by the President of the NUB BiH Employees’ Council, Aldin Huskic, on Wednesday, August 28th.
Two days earlier, employees stopped providing services to customers, because they had not been paid for five months. In addition, their legal status and method of financing have not been resolved.
At a meeting with the Prime Minister of the Federation of BiH (FBiH) Nermin Niksic and the Federal Minister of Education and Science Jasna Durakovic, on Tuesday, library representatives were promised that the Government of FBiH will finance the work of NUB BiH until the end of 2025.
“That was enough for us to make the decision to continue working normally and providing services to our users,” says Huskic.
The National and University Library is one of the seven cultural institutions of importance for the state of BiH, whose funding has not been resolved. It was founded in 1945, and in its possession are, among other things, special collections that were declared a national monument of BiH in 2020.
Almost 30 years after the war in BiH, the authorities have not yet taken over the founding rights and the obligation to finance them from the budget, so they do this, mostly, by applying for public calls, which are announced every year by institutions at various levels of government.
1.35 million BAM (about 690,000 euros) are needed for the work of the Library on an annual basis.
In May, a law entered into force in the Canton Sarajevo (CS) by which the authorities announced the assumption of the obligation to co-finance seven institutions of importance for BiH.
According to that law, the Ministry of Science, Higher Education and Youth of CS should provide the money for the co-financing of the National and University Libraries, as well as the National Museum of BiH.
The remaining five institutions are under the jurisdiction of the cantonal Ministry of Culture and Sports.
Last week, the Government of CS paid 400,000 BAM (about 200,000 euros) of intervention funds to help NUB, which will cover debts to employees, says the president of the NUB BiH Employees’ Council.
In 2024, the Ministry of Civil Affairs of BiH sent an initiative to the Chairperson of the Council of Ministers, the Ministry of Justice of BiH and the Ministry of Finance and Treasury of BiH, on solving the problem of the status of institutions of science and culture, whose legal and financial status has not been resolved.
There has been no discussion about it yet, RSE writes.
E.Dz.
