The working group for issues of state property of Bosnia and Herzegovina formed by the Office of the High Representative (OHR) has had eight working meetings so far, and new meetings should be organized in the coming weeks.
This was confirmed for Fena in the OHR, with a reminder that the Working Group, which consists of respected domestic and international legal experts, worked on the assessment of various technical and legal aspects of the ownership, use and management of state assets, and analyzed various models of asset management, including examples from international practice.
So far, experts have considered the technical and legal aspects of ownership, use and management of agricultural assets, regulating the use of forests and water resources, the use of resources included in Annex 9 of the Dayton Peace Agreement, such as roads, railways and ports, and compared them with different legal frameworks. which are applied in other countries, as well as different modalities of ownership, management and use of different types of property of the former SFRY and SRBiH.
“The working group plans to hold additional meetings in the coming weeks. After it finishes its work, a report with recommendations will be prepared in order to provide information for domestic political processes regarding the resolution of the issue of state property,” the OHR stated.
As they emphasized, an acceptable and sustainable solution to the issue of property distribution between the state and other levels of government is one of the five goals that the Peace Implementation Council established within the 5+2 Program, but upon the decision of the institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina. politician, which would solve the issue of state property, has been waiting for 28 years.
The OHR believes that solving this issue would provide legal certainty and establish a positive environment for domestic and foreign investors, which leads to economic growth and the creation of new jobs, thereby contributing to higher public revenues and ensuring the provision of better services to citizens.
“Solving the issue of state property benefits everyone and no one is at a loss,” OHR concluded.
The issue of state property has been a topical issue for a long time, especially after the Republika Srpska began to register property to the entity, although the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina emphasized in several judgments that the issue of state property is within the competence of the state and can only be resolved within the framework of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The Parliamentary Assembly consists of 42 deputies elected from both entities and 15 delegates who are directly elected by the Parliament of the Federation of BiH and the National Assembly of the Republika Srpska, which means that, according to the constitutional powers, the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH is the only competent place to adopt a comprehensive law that will resolve the issue of state property for the benefit of all.
In the description of state property, given by the Constitutional Court of BiH, it is clearly stated that state property does not mean only a collection of real estate that serves the public authority, but state property is also “public good” (sea water, seabed, river water, river beds, lakes , mountains and other natural resources, public and transport network, transport infrastructure), which serve all people as a priority.
The OHR emphasizes that the Dayton Agreement and the Constitution of BiH established BiH as the successor of the former Republic of BiH. As one of the successor countries of the former SFRY, the Constitutional Court of BiH confirmed BiH as the holder of state property, which is why a comprehensive and sustainable solution for the distribution of property between the state and other levels of government should be adopted in the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH.
They also emphasized that the issue of state property does not affect the territorial ratio established by the Dayton Peace Agreement nor does it affect the fundamental structure of BiH as a single, sovereign state, but rather it is a technical and functional issue that needs to be resolved in order to find the best way to place state property in the welfare service of all citizens.
