A month after the session of the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina, when it was announced that the Draft Amendments to the Law on the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council had been adopted, the international community presented a list of objections.
However, the Council of Ministers will soon send this Draft to the parliamentary procedure, where, judging by the statements of individual state parliamentarians, it will not be adopted.
We use the opportunity to express our concern, because, according to our assessment, the last-minute amendments to the Draft Law will have a negative impact on the amount of data to be submitted, and potentially represent an obstacle to the practical implementation of the financial statement verification system introduced by the Draft Law.
This is how the highest representatives of the international community warned the government. They sent a letter with a clear and sharp message, in which they criticize the Council of Ministers for the amendments to the Law on the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council of BiH. In addition to criticism of state ministers, there was also a warning to the chairmen of the clubs in the House of Representatives and the House of Peoples of the state parliament. There was no lack of dissatisfaction among individual state parliamentarians either.
“If these amendments to the law are insufficient, they do not meet EU standards, they are not sufficient to deal seriously with corruption and conflict of interest in the judiciary identified by the catastrophic situation. In the parliamentary procedure, such laws that approach this lightly will not receive my support”, Sabina Ćudić is categorical. representative of our party in the BiH House of Representatives.
Among the fourteen priorities for BiH’s membership in the EU is the adoption of the new Law on the HJPC of BiH. However, it has been pending for a long time, and more than two years have passed since the positive assessment of the Draft Law by the Venice Commission. It seems that the opinion, and above all the criticism of the international community, could be of crucial importance for the decisions of state parliamentarians.
“It is certain that in this consideration we will take into account the fact that this is one of the conditions as well as the attitude of those who set that condition”, says Saša Magazinović, president of the SDP Club in the BiH House of Representatives.
The harshest criticism came from the SDA. They claim – the Council of Ministers has caused great damage to the country, its judicial system and the European path. Instead of a historic session, as the ministers from the Troika parties characterized it, the citizens of BiH got, the SDA claims, a historical hoax.
With this act, the Council of Ministers caused great damage to the European path of BiH. The troika tried to hide the fact that with new concessions to the coalition partners at the expense of Bosnia and Herzegovina, they continue to pay the debt for coming into power with falsehoods about the Law on the HJPC.
Transparency International also announced. They warned that what was accepted by the Council of Ministers will have a negative impact on transparency and the issue of checking the assets of judicial office holders.
“Situations of conflicts of interest between members of the Council and holders of judicial institutions are not defined in the most adequate way, nor are property transparency and protection mechanisms enabled. And the procedure of checking property records itself, where more complex provisions have been introduced in terms of which laws will be checked”, believes Ivana Korajlić. executive director of Transparency International in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Also, one of the conclusions of the Steering Committee of the Peace Implementation Council refers to the Law on the HJPC. They say – it does not comply with EU standards.
They demand the urgent adoption of amendments to the Law of the HJPC of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which relate to integrity, as well as new laws at the state level on the HJPC, the courts and the prevention of conflicts of interest.
