The House of Representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina (PABiH) decided that it will consider the Proposal of the Law on State Property, whose proposers are representatives: Jasmin Emric, Semsudin Mehmedovic, Aida Barucija, and Elvisa Hodzic, in the regular legislative procedure.
Namely, the representatives did not accept the request of the proposers to consider the stated law under urgent procedure, meaning without the possibility of filing amendments, and they also did not accept that it be considered in shortened procedure.
The proposers state in the explanation that it was necessary to proceed with the preparation of a law on state property which will, in a comprehensive manner, and in accordance with the rights and obligations of the state of BiH concerning the titleholder of all state property, regulate the issue of the scope of state property, the right of the state to dispose of its property in accordance with this law, but also to place state property for use, management, and disposal to all institutions of BiH, as well as to all other levels of government in BiH to the extent to which such property is necessary for them to exercise authority in accordance with the Constitution, law, statute, and other regulations in BiH.
Before declaring on the procedure, one of the proposers, Jasmin Emric (NES-For New Generations), said that the issue of state property should and must be resolved so that important infrastructure and development projects, as well as strategic investments, would not be on hold.
“But those solutions need to be comprehensive, and founded on the Constitution as well as on the decisions of the Constitutional Court by which it was confirmed that the state of BiH is the titleholder of ownership and the titleholder of arranging and regulating, disposing, managing, and using state property,” said Emric.
He added that he considers that temporary solutions are no longer purposeful, that additional relaxations open space for the continuation of abuses, appropriation, and illegal alienation of state property.
“It is obvious that the existing exemption mechanisms, which are contained in the provisions of the law on the temporary prohibition of disposal of state property, cannot give an answer to the need for protection of state property, as well as the realization of development projects, nor is the work of the Commission for State Property efficient and effective in that context,” said Emric.
He reminded that the Presidency of BiH in December of last year delivered to the PABiH a proposal for the law on state property.
“Although it is established in the Rules of Procedure of the House of Representatives that a proposal of a law can also be submitted by the Presidency of BiH, the Collegium of that house did not reach an agreement that the Presidency of BiH is an authorized proposer of the law, which is unfounded. The Collegium of the House of Peoples acted identically, which represents an obvious political agreement of those who voted against, in order to prevent a discussion on this strategic and important issue in the PABiH,” stated Emric.
He noted that the proposers took over the text of the Proposal of the Law on State Property from the Presidency of BiH, for which the opinion of the Directorate for European Integration, the opinion of the Agency for Personal Data Protection, and the opinion of the legislative-legal sector had been obtained earlier.
Representative Nebojsa Radmanovic (SNSD) said that the representatives talked yesterday about a topic that has been present for 30 years.
“We know that it was discussed even before the Dayton Peace Agreement came about. Then, at one moment, four representatives appear and say this is urgent that we solve now,” said Radmanovic yesterday.
He added that he did not hear a single coherent sentence from the proposers that would justify the request for urgent procedure, “because there isn’t one”.
“If all political structures in this country have not managed for this many years to reach an agreement, and now someone thinks that it is urgent that we have this solution at today’s session, with a proposal that we have already seen and that we have already rejected,” stated Radmanovic yesterday.
After a short discussion, the representatives decided to consider the proposed law in the regular procedure.
