State Aid Law Passed in Bosnian Parliament

At two parallel sessions in Sarajevo on February 3, both chambers of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia adopted the State Aid Law.

The law was an issue of dispute between parliamentary parties for months, mainly due to how it was financed, which was at first supposed to be from the state budget.

The final version of the law ruled the Council for State Aid in Bosnia and Herzegovina will be funded from the state and the budgets of the Republika Srpska and Federation entity, all contributing one third of the money.

The law will regulate conditions for assigning, control, implementing and the return of misused budget money in the country – establishing and assuring market conditions and the country's obligations under international agreements of Bosnia.

The council will be engaging eight members – three appointed by the state government, two by each entity and one by the District of Brcko.

The law was also a condition given by the European Union for Bosnia to have a credible membership application.

The State Aid Law and the Census Law, formally reconfirmed on Friday, were two key laws Bosnia was to adopt in other to fulfil its international obligations.

The EU delegation to Bosnia welcomed the adoption of the laws saying they are crucial for the next steps of the country on its EU integration path.

"Now it is important that the procedure for the formation of the new Council of Ministers is quickly completed, and that progress is made on implementing the European Court of Human Rights ruling in the 'Sejdic-Finci' case," the EU delegation said on February 3.

The 2009 Sejdic and Finci verdict said that Bosnia has to change its legislation and enable minorities to run for the top governing positions in the country.

Even though Bosnia had many deadlines to change its laws, they had been broken every time because the political parties in the parliament could not agree on the amendments that were to assure its implementation.

The Council of Europe, at their January session, said that Bosnia's membership, which the country holds since 2002, will seriously be questioned if the Sejdic and Finci verdict is not implemented by March 15.

At the end of the Friday's session of the House of Representatives, the president of the chamber, Milorad Zivkovic, said the appointment of the new state government will most likely be done on Thursday next week.

Bosnian parliament already appointed Vjekoslav Bevanda as the country's new prime minister on January 12 and he finished all consultations with the proposed nine ministers.