Members of the Collegiums of both Houses of the BiH Parliamentary Assembly spoke with the rapporteur of the European Parliament

The members of the Collegiums of the Houses of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH PA) met today with the rapporteur of the European Parliament (EP) for Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cristian Dan Preda, who informed them about the process of preparing the European Parliament’s Resolution on the Report of the European Commission for BiH for 2016, which should be adopted by mid next month.

At today's meeting, Mr. Preda presented to the leadership of the Houses of the Parliamentary Assembly the review of so far submitted amendments to the Draft report on the Commission's Report on Bosnia and Herzegovina for 2016, emphasizing that the amendments will be agreed until the plenary session of the European Parliament and that it would be possible to discuss them also at the session of EP to be held, as expected, on February 15.

The members of the Collegiums of both Houses have praised the work on drafting the report, but, at the same, time they have warned that the fast adoption of some amendments could misrepresent the situation in BiH and undermine its political stability. Thus, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Šefik Džaferović, invited European parliamentarians to do everything  as the Resolution would be a reflection of the real situation and to avoid the kind of lobbying on the basis of which the final text would be something that suits to some but not to all parties in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Džaferović particularly emphasized the ambiguities and the problems that could rise from the amendments in which is mentioned the federalism without the explanation of the full meaning of that term.

The Speaker of the House of Peoples Safet Softić emphasized also the need to speak properly and in real and not exaggerated extent of the issue of the radicalization and the terrorism in order that all eventual parts of the Resolution that mention these problems are based on facts. He also added that the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina will do everything to resolve as soon as possible the issue of the implementation of judgments of the European Court of Human Rights and to finally resolve the problems related to the elections in Mostar.

The Deputy Speaker of the House of Peoples Bariša Čolak said today that no one questions the need to focus on socio-economic reforms, however, according to him, at the same time it is necessary to systematically eliminate major political disagreements about the Sejdić and Finci vs. BiH judgement, the election law and the election of delegates in the House of peoples of Federation. Mr. Čolak stressed the need to emphasize the necessity of reforms in the judiciary sector, especially in the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council and the Prosecutor's Office which is why the war crimes are slowly prosecuted.

Speaking on how the parties in Bosnia and Herzegovina see the priorities and reform measures that need to be made, the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives Mladen Bosić said today that it is good that there are no differences when it is assessed that there is no real and institutional fight against corruption. In addition, he also emphasized the problem of disrespect of media freedom in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the seriousness of problems the public and commercial information systems are facing with. Bosić also expressed the view that the crisis are produced intentionally by insisting on the past, fighting about the date issue instead to deal with real life problems of citizens.

The rapporteur Preda explained the mechanism in the framework of which the final assessments are made in the European Parliament. As he mentioned, the positions are formed on the basis of compromise and the position related to Bosnia and Herzegovina will be the result of taking into account the opinion of the majority of EU member states. (end)