The Office of the High Representative (OHR) said that a permanent solution to the issue of state property requires political will and willingness to compromise on the part of domestic political actors.
Namely, state property is an issue that should become a primary political issue in the coming months. For years, there has been no agreement among domestic politicians for a solution, considering that the political representatives of the entities of Republika Srpska do not accept the concept of state property, considering that the state should not own property.
On the other hand, parties based in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, primarily those who declare themselves pro-Bosnian, believe that state property is essentially state property and that it can be given to lower levels of government for use.
The third aspect of the whole story is the growing pressure from foreigners who want to solve this issue as a priority because the current situation is holding back numerous investment projects. And considering that the priority of the US administration in Bosnia and Herzegovina is the start of construction of the Southern Interconnection, but also a number of other projects, state property is the next topic on the table for immediate resolution.
Klix.ba previously wrote about the fact that the countries of the Quinte (five member countries of the NATO alliance – USA, Great Britain, France, Germany and Italy) are working intensively on finding a solution. And the solution can come either from local leaders or through the imposition of foreigners, which can potentially open up new problems.
OHR says that the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina was very clear: the state is the holder of the right of ownership over state property, and the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina has the exclusive authority to regulate issues of state property.
“The ban on disposal is, above all, a means of protecting the interests of the state in this process and ensuring compliance with the relevant decisions of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Within the ban on disposal, there is a mechanism that allows for special exceptions if it is in the public interest, and it is certainly one of the ways to solve the current blockage of important investment and development projects. However, a permanent solution requires political will and a willingness to compromise on the part of domestic political actors,” the OHR told FENA.
This message indicates that the international factor in BiH will also try to secure political consent for this issue, but with necessary compromises, which means that everyone will have to give up some demands.
For the Americans, it is especially important that the state property is urgently resolved, because without it, there will be no start of work on the Southern Interconnection, and probably not on many other projects either.
The next few months will show what the announced compromises will be regarding state assets, he writes Klix.
