prijava
SARAJEVO, April 27 (FENA) - A draft law aimed to regulate the construction of small hydropower plants on watercourses in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina was adopted by a majority vote at today's regular session of the House of Representatives of the FBiH Parliament.
The draft law was sent to a 30-day public debate and it was concluded that it should come before the deputies in the form of a Bill no later than June this year.
This draft law, whose official title is the Draft Law on Amendments to the Law on Electricity in FBiH, was proposed by the FBiH Government and as one of the novelties, it defines small hydropower plants (sHPPs) as hydropower facilities with installed capacity up to 10 MW (megawatts).
The government has also planned to suspend the issuance of energy permits for small hydropower plants. Applicants who have concluded contracts with the competent authorities on the awarding of a concession by the time this law enters into force are exempted, provided that they are obliged to complete the application for the issuance of an energy permit within three years.
The amendments to the existing Law on Electricity were proposed by the Government implementing the conclusion of the House of Representatives from June last year, which ordered a complete suspension of construction of small hydropower plants throughout FBiH, and the Government has obliged itself in the meantime to regulate the area in order to protect watercourses and the environment from uncontrolled exploitation and destruction.
The government determined and sent amendments to the Law on Electricity to the parliamentary procedure, in the form of a Bill, not a draft law, and proposed that the deputies consider them in an urgent procedure.
However, by today's majority decision of the MPs, the procedure of the act was slowed down because they voted to return it in the form of a draft law. In practice, this usually means that the act will go through a public debate before the parliamentary procedure could be completed, which happened in this case as well.
Because of this slowdown, several MPs reacted today. Some of them said they could not believe that some parliamentarians were saying totally the opposite from what they were advocating in June last year.
(FENA) S. R.
