While Bosnia and Herzegovina is waiting for a solution to the issue of state property management, High Representative Christian Schmidt reveals a possible solution in an interview with a German newspaper. Establishment of a new institution – joint Agency for Property. This would transfer ownership of the property from the state to the Agency, which would further manage and distribute revenues. Reactions of BiH politicians are harsh. They claim that Schmidt is preparing the public for the decision to transfer the management of state property to entities and cantons.
Bosnia and Herzegovina has been waiting for a permanent solution for state property for thirty years.
The Republika Srpska’s attempts to illegally appropriate and register property that is exclusively owned by the state have been going on for that long.
Through the National Assembly, the RS persistently and persistently tries to turn what is state-owned into entity-owned. However, unconstitutional conclusions, laws and moves were stopped in the OHR. In the meantime, the Working Group under the supervision of the High Representative is seeking an acceptable and sustainable solution to the distribution of assets. While waiting for the decision, a high representative in the German media talked about a possible solution.
“It is about the fair distribution of state property. This requires a state law. It would be conceivable, for example, to transfer ownership to a joint agency, whose revenues would be fairly distributed,” Schmidt told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
Schmidt imaginable, BH completely unacceptable to the public. The idea of establishing a new institution was immediately rejected.
“Establishing any agency that would dispose of state property is only further complicating this issue in Bosnia and Herzegovina, considering that agencies that already exist can always be blocked at the will of any political factor”, points out Šemsudin Mehmedović, SDA representative in House of Representatives of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
“Neither any agency nor any body can perform management, nor any other tasks related to the status of state property”, is the opinion of Nihad Omerović, president of the NiP Club in the House of Representatives of BiH.
In the announcement of a potential solution through the joint Property Agency, parliamentarians, especially those from the opposition, recognize another motive. The name of the new competent institution for state property, they claim, indicates a possible concession to the wishes of Milorad Dodik.
“Schmidt and Dodik united terminologically! According to the Constitution, there are no joint institutions or joint agencies! This unconstitutional term is used by Dodik. There are only institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina”, says Dženan Đonlagić, a delegate in the House of Peoples of Bosnia and Herzegovina (DF).
“This game plan with Milorad Dodik and the High Representative is actually just hiding and diverting the public’s attention to the essence of the problem, and in essence those behind the scenes are working very well, they are making arrangements, and this very solution that the High Representative threw out as a trial balloon is a solution that suits Dodik” , evaluates Mehmedović.
The ruling structure says that it is difficult to talk about solutions that are not yet official. They do not know the details, but they unequivocally accept only the solution that confirms Bosnia and Herzegovina as the sole holder.
“It is necessary to determine important legal facts: how is the competence of that agency conceived, in what way could it eventually appear as a regulator of state property? I really don’t know that at the moment. And the second question is who is the titular? In my opinion, the titular is Bosnia and Herzegovina, and any other legal solution that would have another consequence of marking some other institutions or levels of government as the titular would have to be exclusively the result of a legal solution”, points out Albin Muslić, representative of the SDP in the BiH House of Representatives.
“We will not calmly watch the drawing up of a certain conclusion and decision related to state property precisely with the aim and in such a way that the ownership or title cannot be transferred by any legal decision from the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina to some other body”, concludes Omerović.
It is obvious that dangerous political games are being played in the case of state property. The public is waiting for the final decision of the high representative or position. It is impossible to escape the impression that the story of the state agency is actually just a poll of public opinion or a classic time-buying exercise. After all, it is clear to everyone that without state property there is no state. And Bosnia and Herzegovina is a sovereign state and it is high time to put an end to that story.
