Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina Holds Its 25th Session

The Council of Ministers of BIH, at its session in Sarajevo, attended by Deputy Head of Delegation of the European Union in BIH dr. Renzo Daviddi, adopted answers to a list of EU questions of for chapters 5 and 27 of acquis, namely on public procurement and environment, that the Directorate for European Integrations is to provide to the European Commission by October 31, 2012, the deadline for provision of answers under the Road Map for BIH accession process to the European Union.  

More than 390 page long answers provide a clear picture of the state of public procurements and environment, prepared jointly by competent State, Entity and Cantonal institutions.

Representatives of BIH executive authorities and political leaders took over the Road Map on June 27 this year in Brussels at an opening meeting of dialogue on EU accession process, hosted by Štefan Füle, Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy.

The fulfilment of commitments and key priorities from the Road Map within its deadlines will enable effectiveness of the Stabilisation and Accession Agreement and submission of a credible application for the EU membership

Upon a proposal of the Agency for Food Safety of BIH, the Council of Ministers of BIH adopted a set of regulations from the so-called “hygiene package”, in order to fulfil its obligations in view of harmonisation of BIH regulations with EU regulations in this field.

These are: the Regulation on formulas for sucklings and formulas for infants, Regulation on contents and marking of food for gluten-non-tolerant persons, Regulation on food hygiene, and Regulation on official controls for verification of procedures’ compliance to regulations on food and food for animals and regulations on animal health and wellbeing.

Adoption and implementation of these regulations in Bosnia and Herzegovina will enable smooth production and export of domestic food, as well as of food for animals.

Regulations from the field of food hygiene and official controls, the so-called “hygiene package”, represent a key horizontal legislative for food safety in the European Union.

Upon a proposal of the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations, and with a view of customer protection, the Council of Ministers of BIH adopted a Regulation on organisation of official controls of products of animal origin for human nutrition and regulation on hygiene of food of animal origin.

This Regulation, which harmonises rules of organisation of official controls of products of animal origin in BIH and special rules on hygiene of food of animal origin with the corresponding EU regulations, must be complied by business entities dealing with food.

This sets a legal ground for export of products of animal origin from Bosnia and Herzegovina to EU countries.

Provisions of the Regulation will be implemented by the Veterinary Office of BIH and competent Entity and Brčko District authorities.

The Council of Ministers of BIH requested the Ministry of Foreign Trade an Economic Relations to form an inter-sector group to prepare new proposal legislation on food, veterinary and agriculture, nutrition and rural development in order to adjust them in terms of coordination and newly-adopted regulations harmonised with appropriate EU directives.

Also, the Agency for Food Safety, Veterinary Office and Office for Health of Herbs are assigned to prepare and submit for adoption a regulation on microbiologic criteria.

Upon a proposal of the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations, the Council of Ministers of BIH considered a ranking list of most successful candidates for selection of three members of the State Aid Council and appointed the most successful candidates Samir Sabljica, Ljiljana Miličević and Mila Gadžić.

The appointment of the State Aid Council will enable a credible implementation of the Law on State Aid throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina, by way of improved coordination of earmarking public funds to development projects, with a focus to economic incentives for improvement of BIH competitiveness and equitable development of all parts of the country.

The Council of Ministers of BIH requested the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations to organise a constituting session of the State Aid Council within seven days.

The Council of Ministers of BIH concluded that due care will be taken on the representation of “others” in future designations.

The Council of Ministers of BIH adopted Information on inceptive activities of a Team for preparation of coordination mechanism document under the European Integrations process, with proposed principles for adoption of an effective coordination mechanism on the European Integrations issues.

The Directorate for European Integrations is in charge to inform competent executive and legislative institutions (Entity and Brčko District Governments, Cantonal Governments and Parliamentarian Committees dealing with European Integrations issues, and Presidency of BIH) of the activities undertaken on defining an effective coordination mechanism on European Integrations issues.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is in charge to cooperate with the Directorate for European Integrations and prepare for the next Council of Ministers session a report on issues in regard the passage through Neum and access to the Ploče Port, concerning some uncertainties raised during the talks with European Commission representatives.

At its first meeting, held on October 24, 2012, the Team for preparation of coordination mechanism document under the European Integrations process agreed principles of future coordination mechanism on European Integrations issues. The basic principles are grounded on the following: compliance to Constitutional competences and legal solutions; compliance to commitments stemming from the European Integrations process; identification of the existing elements of the coordination system, analyse of weaknesses and up-grading and improvement requirements; effectiveness and inclusion of all-level authorities; consideration of technical and political coordination requirements. Also, the meeting agreed that the preparation and establishment of the coordination mechanism will represent an output of domestic institutions, and that the proposed coordination mechanism will be complemented to correspond to needs and requirements of the European integrations process.

The Team for preparation of coordination mechanism document under the European Integrations process was appointed at Council of Ministers’ 23^rd session of October 16, 2012, with an aim at implementation of commitments taken over during the Brussels high-level dialogue of June 27, 2012.

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