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SARAJEVO, December 9 (FENA) - MPs of the House of Representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina today, at the end of the session, rejected several parliamentary initiatives aimed at improving the economic situation in BiH and accelerating reforms.
The MPs did not support the negative opinion of the Constitutional Committee on the amendments to the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina proposed by the Social Democratic Party's (SDP) caucus, which is in fact a set of reforms known as the "April package" and which would, among other things, strengthen the role of the parliament, introduce the office of President and Prime Minister of BiH.
After such a vote, the competent committee is in charge of drafting a new opinion on the amendments.
The second negative opinion of the Committee for Amendments to the Law on Consumer Protection in BiH, proposed by HDZ MPs Borjana Krišto and Darijana Filipović, Alma Čolo (SDA), Nada Mladina (SDP) and Edita Đapo (SBB), was also rejected, thus suspending the legislative procedure.
The Annual Audit Report on the main findings and recommendations for 2019 was accepted, as well as the reports of the Audit Office of the Institutions of BiH on the financial audit of 74 state institutions for last year.
The MPs also accepted reports on the care of refugees and foreigners under subsidiary protection in BiH and on the state of radiation and nuclear safety, and there was no entity support from the entity of Republika Srpska for the Report on the Work of the BiH Attorney's Office for last year.
There was not enough entity support from the RS for several parliamentary initiatives, some of which concern the right to study a national group of subjects in the mother tongue, amendments to the Law on Citizenship and marking August 23 as the "European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Totalitarian and Authoritarian Regimes".
The parliamentary initiative of the MPs of the Party of Democratic Progress (PDP) Mira Pekić and Branislav Borenović receives support, under which the House of Representatives obliges the BiH Council of Ministers to prepare a Draft Law on Amendments to the Law on Value Added Tax within 30 days.
The intention is to reduce the VAT rate on all services provided in tourism, catering and passenger transport from 17 to five percent. A VAT rate of five percent in tourism, catering and passenger traffic would be applied until December 31, 2022.
There was no entity majority support for the initiative requesting the preparation of a draft law on the use and disposal of non-prospective military property, but an initiative was adopted requesting updated information on the situation in BiH on the issue of the coronavirus pandemic, both proposed by the House Deputy Speaker Denis Zvizdić (SDA).
Another Zvizdić's initiative was also supported, asking the Council of Ministers to prepare and send to the parliamentary procedure a new Draft Law on Medicines and Medical Devices of BiH in order to harmonize this regulation with the new regulations of the European Union in terms of international trade and procurement of medicines and medical devices in line with the current situation caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
Zvizdić's initiative which instructs the Council of Ministers of BiH to prepare and send to the parliamentary procedure lex specialis - the Proposal of the Law on Prevention of Hate Speech on the Internet, within 60 days was also supported.
His initiatives that were rejected because there was no entity support are the ones on the preparation of the Draft Framework Law on Environmental Protection, Development and Use of Natural Resources of BiH and the Draft Framework Law on the Spatial Plan of BiH for the period from 2020 to 2040 and for the preparation of the Draft Law on Census of the population, households and dwellings in BiH so that the census can be conducted by 2023 at the latest.
(FENA) S. R.
