Sjednice
Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina Holds Its 76th Session
04/15/2025
The Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina took note of a piece of information by Chairwoman Borjana Krišto on holding of an extraordinary session of the Fiscal Council of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
For the purpose pf prevention of further adverse effects to property interests of Bosnia and Herzegovina and its institutions and with regard of both provisions of the Law on Financing of Institutions of BIH and piece of information by the Ministry of Finance and Treasury from the 53rd extraordinary session, the Council of Ministers of BIH tasked the Ministry of Finance and Treasury to develop an amended text 2025 Draft Law on Budget of Institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina and International Obligations of BIH and submit it to the Council of Ministers’ next session (April 22, 2025), under which, without an increase of framework for financing of BIH Institutions, funds will be planned for implementation of the ICSID Tribunal arbitrage award in amount of KM 110 million. The amendments will not include amendments of budget items referring to salaries and reimbursements of employees, material expenditures and net costs for financial property if these would affect financing of BIH Institutions.
The Council of Ministers of BIH took these conclusions so as to start urgently the implementation of the arbitrage award by Bosnia and Herzegovina, the executor, and create conditions for further recourse lawsuits and finally recover damage from Republika Srpska.
Simultaneously, the Ministry of Communications and Transport is in charge to table a Proposal Decision on Financing of Expenditures of the Air Navigation Services Agency (BHANSA) on temporary basis, for the purpose of ensuring its smooth operation.
The issues with BHANSA arose due to an enforcement process, because of a dispute by a claimant against the Government of Republika Srpska, which failed to settle its obligations against earlier signed Agreement with the Council of Minsiters od BIH on Unconditional Fulfilment of All of Its Obligations against Arbitrage Award on behalf of Bosnia and Herzegovina, upon receipt of documented request form the Chief Prosecutor’s Office of BIH.
REVISED ANTI-MINE ACTION STRATEGY OF BIH ADOPTED
The Council of Ministers of BIH took the Ministry of Civil Affairs-tabled Decision on adoption of a Revised 2025-2027 Bosnia and Herzegovina Anti-Mine Action Strategy, in a new wording.
The Strategy was developed in cooperation with responsible Entity bodies, namely, the Federal Administration of Civil Protection, Republic Administration of Civil Protection, Red Cross of Republika Srpska and Red Cross of the Federation of BIH.
The revised document should ensure the most effective development of an Activity Plan and definition of steps to be taken within an approved deadline for fulfilment of obligations, so that Bosnia and Herzetovina would approximate to meeting relevant obligations as to reconnaissance and cleansing, according to a Convention against use, storing, production and transport of land mines and on destruction thereof.
With a gratitude to all donors who have supported for years generously the BIH Anti-Mine Programme, our country is still faced with a considerable challenge as to mines. According to estimates of January 2024, suspicious danger of mined surface in Bosnia and Herzegovina is 838m2or 1.63% of total surface of het country.
Bosnia and Herzegovina has earlier taken an obligation to destroy or ensure destruction of all land mines in mined areas until March 2027. The Demining Committee and Mine Action centre of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BHMAC) are obliged, in case of unfinished demining process in Bosnia and Herzegovina, to take all necessary activities to develop and submit a new request for deadline extension of demining in BIH, with detailed analysis of all circumstances affecting demining actions, to show how long deadline extension is required.
MORE EFFECTIVE OPERATION OF BOARDS FOR INTERNAL POLICY AND ECONOMY
Upon the Council of Ministers od BIH Secretariat-General, several decisions were taken on supplements to decisions on appointment of chair, deputy chair and members of the Board for Internal Policy and of Board for Economy.
The supplement decisions regulates a practice of mutual alteration of chairs and deputies chair at sessions of the Boards for Internal Policy and Economy, respectively, with a provision that in extraordinary situations and with a written approval, sessions may be chaired over by Deputy chairing Ministers, in case the chair or his deputy are prevented to attend the sessions.
This was the way to secure a functional operation in continuity of these standing bodies of the Council of Ministers of BIH, assigned consideration of materials before the Council of Ministers sessions, within earlier defined competences.
INCREASED PERCENTAGE OF IMPLEMENTATION OF CoM CONCLUSIONS
The session considered a Review of the Council of Ministers of BIH conclusion implementation for January 1 – December 31, 2024, developed by the Council of Ministers Secretariat-General, emphasising the importance of timely and consistent conclusions implementation.
The review covered 58 sessions of the Council of Ministers of BIH held in the course of last year, namely 32 regular and 26 extraordinary sessions, which took total 637 conclusions, of which 587 (91%) were implemented and 54 remained unimplemented.
The session adopted relevant conclusions for the reason of lifting the level of a full implementation of all conclusions, and relevant assignments were passed to all institutions of the Council of Ministers of BIH, whose conclusions implementation level was lower than 90%.
FAILED ADOPTION OF ANIMAL FOOD RULEBOOK HARMONISED WITH EU REGULATIONS
The Council of Ministers failed after two rounds of vote to reach consensus on adoption of a Rulebook on Amendments of Rulebook on undesired substances in animal food with an “EI” mark.
CoM BIH TOOK MOST OF BUDGET RESERVE FUNDS FOR FLOODED MUNICIPALITIES AND FIRE EXTIGUISHING IN BIH
The Council of Ministers of BIH adopted a piece of information on distribution and use of current reserve funds for 2024, and the document will be passed to the Parliamentarian Assembly by the Ministry of Finance and Treasury.
According to the piece of information, out of planned KM 4, 236,000 of current reserves in 2024, totally approved were KM 4,203,500, of which implemented were KM 4,200,261.61.
Out of approved 2,060,00, the Council of Ministers of BIH implemented KM 2,056,761.61, of which total KM 2 million, through the Minist5ry of Security, to municipalities hit by floods (KM 1,000,000), to the Federal Civil Protection Administration and Republic Civil Protection Administration of Republika Srpska (KM 1,000,000) for procurement of fire extinguishing equipment in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
CONSENT TO APPOINTMENTS
The Council of Ministers of BIH granted several consents for appointment of Colonel Louis Boquien to the post of an Attaché for internal security with the Embassy of the French Republic in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Colonel Mahmoud Mohaghier Pour to the post of Defence Attaché of the Islamic Republic of Iran in BIH, and Brigadier Christian Hahn to the post of Defence Attaché of the Republic of Austria in Bosnia and Herzegovina. (end)
Link for Photos:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/vijeceministara/albums/72177720325098606