Council of Ministers Holds Its 59th Session

TO SECURE EQUAL ACCESS TO JUSTICE IN PROCEEDINGS BEFORE BIH INSTITUTIONS 

The Council of Ministers of BIH defined a Proposal Law on free of charge legal assistance, aiming to secure an effective and equal access to justice in proceedings before bodies and institutions of BIH before which individual rights, obligations or interests are exercised or protected.

According to the Law, the body responsible for provision of a free of charge legal assistance before bodies and institutions of BIH is the Office for Free-of-Charge Legal Assistance of Bosnia and Herzegovina under the Ministry of Justice.

Beneficiaries of free legal assistance may be BIH citizens and other natural persons residing in BIH, persons staying in BIH territory under international protection, such as refugees, asylum seekers, human trafficking victims, apartheids, and individuals whose rights are protected by provisions of relevant international conventions.

The Ministry of Justice will provide the Proposal Law to the BIH Parliamentarian Assembly, with inserted corrections made at the session, for consideration under a regular legislative procedure.

 

NEW PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION REFORM STRATEGIC FRAMEWORK BY END JULY

 

The Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina reaffirms its commitment for implementation of the Reform Agenda measures, and supports the continuation of planned and coordinated strengthening of effectiveness and modernisation of public administration at all administrative levels in Bosnia and Herzegovina, to the end of achieving standards and principles of “good governance”, as a generally accepted governance concept in all democratic systems.

The Council of Ministers of BIH took this conclusion as it adopted Information of the Public Administration Reform Coordinator’s Office on activities related to development of the 2016-2020 Public Administration Reform Strategic Framework.

The Public Administration Reform Coordinator’s Office is expected to provide a Draft Public Administration Reform Strategy to the Council of Ministers of BIH and Entity and Brčko District Governments via their respective public administration reform coordinators by the end of July, for consideration and adoption.

 

BIH AND CROATIA PROMOTE THEIR COOPERATION IN STATE BORDER SURVEILANCE

 

The Council of Ministers of BIH adopted a Report of the Coordination Body in charge for monitoring of implementation of the Agreement between the Council of Ministers of BIH and Government of the Republic of Croatia on cooperation in surveillance over the state border in 2015.

The Report indicates 1,914 joint patrols were realised last year, pursuant to the Agreement on cooperation in surveillance of the state border between Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Republic of Croatia, namely, 954 patrols in BIH territory and 960 in the Republic of Croatia, thus confirming a constant up-ward trend of joint activities of the two states in this area, after 958 joint patrols were realised in the inceptive year of the Agreement implementation, in year 2009.

The joint patrols, in addition to strengthening of mutual confidence and cooperation, bring concrete results in suppression of illegal migrations and other illicit deeds. So, three criminal acts and 46 offences were discovered last year.

The coordination body should meet more frequently in future, as per requests by BIH Border Police for timely reaction and promotion of overall cooperation in this area.

 

IMPROVED REALISATION OF GOALS OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION REFORM STRATEGY ACTION PLAN

 

The Council of Ministers of BIH adopted an Annual Progress Report of the Public Administration Reform Coordinator’s Office (monitoring of the BIH Public Administration Reform Strategy Revised Action Plan 1 (RAP 1) for year 2015, which indicates of 65 % of realised goals, making it 4 per cent more in relation to year 2014.

Viewing by reform areas of the Revised Action Plan 1, the most of goals were realised in the Institutional Communication field, 77 per cent, and the most active in the aims realisation were the State level institutions. Simultaneously, the least percentage of realisation was made in the e-Government filed, 49 per cent.

 

FIPA TABLES 41 RECOMMENDATION FOR BIH BUSINESS AMBIENT IMPROVEMENT

 

The Council of Ministers of BIH adopted a Report on Aftercare Activities of the Foreign Investment Promotion Agency in Bosnia and Herzegovina for 2015.

The Report follows 41 recommendations for improvement of het business ambient in Bosnia and Herzegovina, to be forwarded t the competent Entity institutions.

Total 41 FIPA recommendations relate to the improvement of situation in 23 areas, including indirect taxes, accesses, public procurement, public-private partnership, removal of administrative barriers to business, linking of labour market and education, registration of economic entities, labour relations, foreigners employment, bankruptcy, social benefits, labour law, commercial disputes, administrative proceeding, regulation of petroleum products market, better coordination of authorities, and removal of regulations collision and their consistent implementation.

Recommendations for improvement of business ambient in BIH were developed as a result of implementation of a Post-Investment support Programme, Aftercare Programme, and analysis of a number of relevant business and economy-related documents and reports.

Within the Aftercare Programme, last year FIPA visited 70 companies, while its staff visited total 465 companies in BIH in time between 2007 and January 2016.

 

SRATEGY IMPLEMENTATION UNDER BIH CITIZENS READMISSION AGREEMENTS

 

The Council of Ministers of BIH took a decision, proposed by the Ministry for Human Rights and Refugees, on appointment of a Coordination Council for monitoring of realisation of a Strategy for readmission and integration of BIH citizens returning based on a Readmission Agreement and Action Plan 2015-2018.

The five-member Coordination Council is comprised of representatives of the State-level Ministries for Human Rights and Refugees and Security, BIH Border Police and  Entity Ministries for Refugees and Displaced Persons.

 

MANAGER OF INDIRECT TAXATION ADMINISTRATION APPOINTED

The Council of Ministers of BIH appointed Miro Džakula for Manager of the Indirect Taxation Administration of Bosnia and Herzegovina, as the most successful candidate from the list of successful candidates for selection and appointment of Manager, as proposed by the Steering Board of the Indirect Taxation Administration.

 

SUPERVISORY BODY FOR INTEGRATED BORDER MANAGEMENT STRATEGY MONITORING

 

The Council of Ministers of BIH took decision, upon a proposal of the Ministry of Security, on establishment of a Coordination Body for monitoring of implementation of strategic and operative aims set in the Integrative Border Management Strategy in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Framework Action Plan for implementation of the Integrated Border Management Strategy in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The coordination Body is comprised of representatives of the institutions included into the integrated border management process in BIH, and are responsible for strategic and operative aims implementation monitoring. The implementation of the Integrated Border Management is extremely important for BIH in the context of the Road Map for visa liberalisation, European Commission Progress Report on BIH, as well as the Reform Agenda.

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