prijava
SARAJEVO, May 30 (FENA) - After the European Commission's Opinion on BiH was released yesterday, it has become absolutely clear that the politics of those who did everything to convince the public that it is a priority to ensure a legitimate political representation of the peoples has expirienced total defeat, said today a member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Željko Komšić.
In a statement from his office it is pointed out that the European Commission's Opinion on the candidate status of BiH has confirmed several elements that should be introduced in BiH in accordance with European standards, which stands as a diagnosis of what has not been harmonized with European standards in BiH.
The first element refers to the fact that the BiH Constitution contains parts which have ethnically based system of election of officials, as well as the manner of decision-making on an ethno-territorial principle that is not in accordance with the European Convention on Human Rights.
“The election, composition and decision-making of the collective head of the state and the legislative authorities, gives priority or is reserved exclusively for members of the constituent peoples, which requires the necessary reforms in order to ensure that all the citizens of BiH consummate their political rights in accordance with the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights,” explained Komšić.
The BiH Presidency member Komšić argues that this stands solely as the defeat of the Croat National Assembly (HNS) policies that persuaded the domestic public that we need to ensure a legitimate political representation of the peoples, because they believe that individual peoples should have some special or larger political rights.
The election of delegates to the House of peoples institutions at the state and FBiH levels, Komšić adds, is also mentioned in the Opinion, stating that it is in contrast to European standards, in addition that the referring to the protection of "vital national interest" is an element that makes it difficult to adopt any laws, including those concerning the European acquis communautaire.
Komšić points out that it is obvious that the existing constitutional arrangement does not correspond to European standards and that if BiH wants to get a candidate status, all this should be changed and harmonized with European standards, with the need to resolve the issue of elections in Mostar.
Nevertheless, Komšić believes that the key part of the Opinion is the conclusions and recommendations where the first one refers to the need to amend the Election Law, but in accordance with European standards, while respecting the recommendations of the Venice Commission regarding the election legislation.
“The most recent opinion was the one in the decision of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the "Božo Ljubić" case, where the Venice Commission said that the then part of the Constitution of the Federation of BiH, which deals with the filling of the House of Peoples of the FBiH Parliament, was in line with European electoral standards, and then the Constitutional Court of BiH abolishes and puts out of force these exact provisions of the BiH Election Law, thus creating a vacuum in the electoral system,” underlined Komšić.
He also reminds that the Venice Commission, during the recent negotiations on amendments to the Election Law of BiH, said that the issue concerning the "Božo Ljubić" case should be resolved by the Federation of BiH, which was acknowledged through the proposal of the Law on electoral units and the distribution of mandates in the Federation of BiH, proposed by DF and SDP.
“The so-called "promoters of European values" scrapped this proposal from the procedure by using the institute of the protection of vital national interest in the House of Peoples of the FBiH Parliament. By doing so, they have in fact, removed any chance for BiH to get a candidate status and they have postponed the EU integration of BiH for, who knows, how long,” concluded Komšić.
(FENA) S. R.
