TI BiH: The process of preparing key laws from the EU Opinion – a hypocritical farce

Banja Luka, 16. July 2021 – Key laws for strengthening the rule of law, listed as priority conditions in the Opinion of the European Union for BiH’s candidate status for EU membership – Election Law, Law on Public Procurement, Law on Conflict of Interest, Law on High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council, and Law on protection of whistleblowers in FBiH, they have been in the process for a long time. The absence of real intention of the authorities to substantially improve the legal framework in these areas is confirmed by the fact that the procedure for the adoption of any of these laws has not been completed more than two years after the publication of the EC Opinion.

Instead of harmonizing the legal framework in these areas with international standards and the opinions of relevant bodies (Venice Commission, ODIHR), the authorities’ attention is focused on efforts to circumvent the essence of international standards and good practices, satisfying mere form and fighting for narrow party interests. At the same time, manipulation of procedures, obstructions, mutual accusations and blackmail of key political actors, in addition to causing unnecessary delays, undermine credibility and trust in the process itself. The work of the Parliamentary Assembly is practically blocked, and the Council of Ministers and the BiH Ministry of Justice are in the function of obstructing the process.

The painful atmosphere in which the Interdepartmental Working Group in charge of changing the election legislation works is additionally burdened by the fact that the CEC BiH is not involved in its work, as a key institution for conducting elections, which undoubtedly represents a serious but intentional omission. Messages sent openly by party leaders, but also by representatives of the international community, indicate that the work of this body only satisfies the form, while key changes to the Election Law will be negotiated behind closed doors by leaders of the three largest parties in BiH. . An additional problem lies in the fact that the inter-ministerial working group does not deal with the Law on Financing of Political Parties, which is also a condition from the EC opinion.

The Law on Conflict of Interest in BiH Institutions, in the drafting of which TI BiH also participated and which was positively assessed by all relevant international organizations, was sent in 2017. in the parliamentary procedure by a group of MPs in the House of Representatives, where at the end of 2020. finally adopted, but never adopted by the House of Peoples, due to inconsistencies in the amendments tabled in the parliamentary procedure. In the meantime, the Ministry of Justice drafted its own draft, which was assessed as inadequate in the recent opinion of the Venice Commission, and a whole set of recommendations for its improvement were given, which is yet to follow.

The Law on Amendments to the Law on Public Procurement, drafted by the Working Group for Amendments to this Law in 2018, is only in February 2021. adopted by the Council of Ministers, in an amended version, which goes in the direction of derogating from the originally proposed provisions, and then in June 2021. at the House of Representatives, still awaiting final adoption by the House of Peoples.

Announced as urgent changes and a transitional solution until the adoption of the new law, and aimed at improving integrity mechanisms, the amendments to the Law on the HJPC will soon mark two years since the establishment of the Working Group for its amendments. In the meantime, the proposed changes have been revised based on the opinion of the Venice Commission, and are in June 2021. adopted by the Council of Ministers and sent to the parliamentary procedure, with a very uncertain fate, given that the ministers coming from the SNSD did not support this draft. In addition, the adopted draft is not fully in line with the recommendations of the Venice Commission, and still leaves room for arbitrary interpretations. The procedure of amending this law was extremely non-transparent, with the Ministry of Justice refusing to make the amended draft available to the public before its adoption at the CoM, while TI BiH waited another month after the draft was adopted for the Ministry of Justice to decide to submit the amendments.

The draft Law on the Protection of Corruption Reporters in the FBiH was adopted by the FBiH House of Representatives in June 2018. and has since been trapped in parliamentary procedure between the two houses of the Federation Parliament, without any government action to unlock this process.

The fact that the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH since the publication of the opinion of the EC 2019. adopted only two laws (not counting the nine laws on amendments and two laws on the budget), and none of them related to the priorities of the Opinion, confirms the need to change the current approach. In the current atmosphere of manipulation of reform processes, which are used to further collapse the legal and institutional framework, and mutual insults and accusations and even calls for physical confrontations, which is most visible from the work of the Interdepartmental Working Group for Amendments to Electoral Legislation, it is difficult to expect constructive progress.

TI BiH therefore urges civil society, the international community and opposition political parties to use all available means to put additional pressure on the ruling coalition to unblock the work of the BiH Parliamentary Assembly and ensure the credibility of the EU Opinion.

Press rls-16.07.2021