The House of Peoples of the Parliament of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina confirmed the amendments to the Law on Pension and Disability Insurance on January 23, but its application is effective from January 1, i.e. retroactively.
Now the question arises as to what will happen to the people who met the conditions for retirement from January 1 to 23, whether the changes in the law that were not in force at the time of their retirement are also applied to them. In addition, what will happen to the beneficiaries who will receive smaller pensions due to the changes to the Law on PIO, who retired when the old law was in force and whose pensions were supposed to be higher according to that law.
As a rule, retroactive application of the law is prohibited
For the sake of clarification, according to the old Law on PIO, a person with 15 years of service and 65 years of age would have a pension of the lowest amount, which is 599 KM. According to the amendments to Article 81 of the Law on PIO, which were adopted by the Parliament, the pension of persons with up to 20 years of pensionable service cannot be lower than 60 percent of the average pension in FBiH from December of the previous year.
The average pension is currently 651 KM, and 60 percent of that amount is 390 KM.
– As a rule, retroactive application of the law is prohibited in order to preserve legal certainty. The general principle is that laws produce legal effects from the moment of entry into force, and not backwards, so not retroactively. Also, already acquired rights cannot be changed or revoked, which is confirmed by judicial practice in which courts often pass judgments in which provisions that violate the principle of non-retroactivity are revoked – Aida Obuća, a delegate in the House of Peoples of the FBiH Parliament, who is a lawyer by profession, told Faktor.
We also asked for the opinion of Izmir Hadžiavdić, who was a long-time secretary of the House of Peoples of the FBiH, an expert in law.
– I can’t believe that the law, which has not yet entered into force, states that it will be applied from January 1, 2026. This means that according to that law, people who acquired the conditions for a pension should leave before the changes to the PIO Act came into force, which is not the case. They were supposed to retire according to the law that was in force at the time. I don’t know how long it will last, especially if the amendments to the Law on PIO reduce the rights of people that they would have based on the law that was in force when they acquired the conditions for a pension. I think that someone will be found to file a request for the constitutionality of this law – said Hadžiavdić.
It must not jeopardize acquired rights
It indicates that in democratic legal systems the basic principle of prohibition of retroactive application of laws applies.
– This means that the law that was in force at the time when that relationship was created or when the act was committed applies to a specific relationship or event. There are strictly defined exceptions when retroactivity ie. retroactive effect allowed. Thus, the “principle of the milder law” applies in criminal law. This practically means that if the law is changed after the commission of the criminal act, and before the final judgment is passed, the court is obliged to apply the milder law. This means that if the new law foresees a lesser sentence or lighter conditions for the same crime, it will be applied retroactively because it is more favorable for the accused – says Hadžiavdić and adds:
– In other areas of law, in order to give retroactive force to a regulation, strict conditions must be met. There must be a justified general or public interest that overrides the legal security of the individual. Retroactive application must not jeopardize already acquired rights. For example, you cannot be retroactively deprived of your right to a pension that you have already received according to the regulations in force at the time. Factor.
