Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 5th Session (continuation)

The Council of Ministers of BIH concluded that a proposal package of financial regulations of the Ministry of Finance and Treasury is a good basis for a comprehensive reform on the sector, which will be further discussed by Ministers next week at the sequel of the 5th session of the Council of Ministers, following the proposal adjustment with conclusions from today’s session and technical amendments. 

This package includes a Draft Law on the Budget of the BIH Institutions and International Obligations of BIH for year 2012, Amendments and Supplements to the Law on Salaries and Reimbursements in the Institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and several decisions calling for lowered salaries, reimbursements and other expenses in the Institutions o BIH.

The Minister of Defence will continue his talks with representatives of the Entity Governments for the preparation of a Proposal Amendments of the base Law,  which would regulate the rights of dismissed members of the BIH Armed Forces, so that an agreement on the issue might be reached until the sequel of the session.

The Council of Ministers defined a Proposal Law on Amendments and Supplements to the Law on Inter-Government Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters, to be sent to the BIH Parliamentarian Assembly,  with all the amendments incorporated.

The adoption of this Law will promote cooperation of Bosnia and Herzegovina with other states in dealing with criminal matters and will enable speedy processing of criminal matters of organised crime and other forms of crime of a transnational character.

The Council of Ministers of BIH defined a Proposal Law on Amendments and Supplements to the Law on Citizenship of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Proposal Law, to be sent to parliamentarian procedure, is made consistent with a Decision of the Constitutional Court of BIH, prolonging a deadline for revision procedure of naturalised persons’ status, and in certain cases facilitating conditions for obtaining the BIH citizenship, in line with international conventions.

The Amendments of the Law enable BIH citizens to keep citizenship of BIH in case of obtaining citizenship of other state, because legal provisions on cessation of BIH citizenship by force of law are deleted, which brought the Law in consistence with the Decision of the BIH Constitutional Court.

Also, persons whose citizenship was terminated by their waiver,  by dismissal or by force of law, are enabled to obtain BIH citizenship if they are approved temporary residence at least over the past year, or they have a permanent residence. These Amendments are important particularly for the fact that BIH, because of the rejection by other states, has never concluded conventions on dual citizenship with many states where a significant number of our citizens live.

According to the Amendments, a stay in BIH, as a condition for obtaining the BIH citizenship by way of naturalisation, is reduced from current 13 to 8 years. Also, a reduction from current 8 to 5 years applies to spouse, naturalised person, under condition that he/she is not a threat to security of people.

Refuges and stateless persons will be enabled to obtain the BIH citizenship if they stayed in BIH continuously for 5 years before applying for citizenship.

In order to prevent criminals, war criminals and terrorists from obtaining the BIH citizenship, the Supplements to the Law provide for presentation by an applicant of evidence that no criminal procedure is underway against him/her, that he/she does not present a threat to BIH security, and that he/she is in possession reliable sources for his/her own support, that he/she paid all taxes and other financial obligations, in addition to a declaration of accepting the constitutional order of BIH.

The Council of Ministers of BIH adopted Information of the Ministry of Civil Affairs of BIH on application of the Law on ID Card in BIH, and tasked the Agency for Identification Documents, Evidence and Data Exchange to undertake preparatory activities for the issuance of new ID cards in BIH, starting from janaury1, 2013.

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