The chances that the current government, within the deadlines prescribed by law, will tailor the budget of BiH institutions and international obligations for the year 2027 are zero, as many years of experience indicate.
That work, by all accounts, will not be finished this year, because the next few months will be marked by a battle for votes, so one of the most challenging tasks will await the new political set.
How it looks in practice is also told by the scenario we witnessed a few days ago, when the budget for 2026 was finally adopted, and the question is whether it would have even happened now if there was no pressure from the trade unions, whose members were waiting for the difference in wages that they are entitled to by law.
They wanted to prove themselves
Politician Nikolina Lozo believes that in this mandate we will not even get a budget draft for next year.
“The budget of the institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina was finally adopted, and only a few months before the elections. In the previous period, it could have been expected that it would be so, because the government wanted to show that it cares about the citizens,” said Lozo for “Nezavisne novine”.
Speaking about the budget for 2027, our interlocutor points out that everyone is now focused on the campaign and will not deal much with the issue of the new budget.
Formation of government
“Given that the elections are in October, I believe that the budget for 2027 will not be adopted within the legal deadline, but we will have temporary financing. Additionally, it can be slowed down by the fact that the government at the level of Bosnia and Herzegovina is not formed immediately after the elections, which has happened often in the last 20 years,” emphasized Lozo.
Journalist Uroš Vukić also says that it is questionable when the new government will be formed.
“As a rule, government at the level of BiH is difficult to form and we have witnessed that it can take a year or more until the politicians at the level of BiH come to an agreement. Everything depends on the election result, but also on who will be a member of the Presidency of BiH”, points out Vukić.
What is the only sure thing
As he adds, what is certain is that the budget for 2027 will only be discussed in the spring of next year, and he is convinced that there is no chance that the budget will be passed as prescribed by law, that is, that the Presidency will propose it to the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH by November 1.
“As far as I know, that has never happened. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter at all which government proposes the budget. That budget is basically technical, most of it goes to salaries and a little bit to other spending, which is normal, because real life is in the entities,” Vukić points out.
Deadlines they don’t respect
Therefore, the draft law on the budget for the next year should be drawn up in just a few months. Namely, the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina is obliged to submit to the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina the draft law on the budget of the institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the international obligations of Bosnia and Herzegovina for the following year no later than October 15 of the current year.
The Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina is then obliged to submit a draft law on the budget for the following year to the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina by November 1 of the current year.
The BiH Parliamentary Assembly should then consider the budget bill submitted by the BiH Presidency and, in accordance with its own rules of procedure, adopt the budget law by December 31 of the current year. However, everything points to one thing: temporary financing awaits us in 2027, they write Independent newspaper.
