Republika Srpska Prime Minister Zeljka Cvijanovic told press on Tuesday that the RS government would not allow others to ignore the BiH constitution and the competencies of the entities when designing a new coordination mechanism. According to Cvijanovic, the BiH Council of Ministers already had before it a proposal for such a mechanism that had the approval of both entities, but certain ministers were ignoring that proposal and trying to push through a new structure that would overstep the constitutional bounds of the Council’s authority.
“I would like to see how the SDS, the PDP and the NDP, parties that are in power at the BiH level, will act now, and I would like to ask them if this means that they dropped the proposal they voted for together with us in the Republika Srpska Parliament, if they changed their minds overnight and why they allowed that a new coordination mechanism be drafted without previously asking for a vote to be held on a mechanism which is still before the BiH Council of Ministers as a proposal,” Cvijanovic said.
She said that several things are crucial in a coordination mechanism, and the respect for constitutional jurisdictions is in the first place.
“The Constitution is clear as to what belongs to whom in meeting the European obligations and who should do what, and a coordination mechanism serves you to be coordinated in this process of accession to the EU and to avoid, as was the case till now, that Republika Srpska is ahead when it comes to harmonisation of domestic legislation with the EU legislation or in some other segments, and that others are lagging behind,” Cvijanovic told RTRS.
