Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of BIH and Minister of Finance and Treasury of BIH Nikola Špirić received in Sarajevo Head of Delegation of the European Union in BIH and EU Special Representative Ambassador Peter Sorensen and his Deputy Renzo Davidi. The EU representatives congratulated to Minister Šprić for his appointment and expressed expectations that the positive trend will be continued following the establishment of the new Council of Ministers of BIH and adoption of the Law on Census and Law on State Aid. They stressed a need of as soon as possible adoption of the 2012 Budget and agreement on the 2012-2014 Fiscal Balance and Policies Global Framework in BIH. Minister Špirić said that intensive activities are on-going in the Ministry of Finance and Treasury of BIH to arrive at the 2012 Budget as soon as possible. He informed the EU representatives that all Budget users were sent instructions for collection of information necessary for Budget drafting.
Minister Špirić said that the Budget projection will take into consideration the current economic situation in BIH, with due care taken of limitations of total public expenditures and revenues, all that with an aim at securing fiscal sustainability of BIH.
The Head of EU Delegation and EU Special Representative stated that “the early meeting with Minister Špirić was a priority step”.
“Now when the issue of sustainable 2011Budget is behind, it is time to focus our efforts on 2012 Budget, including the 2012-2014 Global Fiscal Framework. Citizens have right to expect from their representatives and institutions to take a considerable and urgent step forward on development of these basic administrative documents. The 2012 Budget is especially badly needed for the reason of undertaking concrete measures concerning the EU integrations, such as setting-up the border inspection services and preparation for census. Also, the Budget is necessary in order to secure holding of local elections scheduled for this year. It should be underlined that the existence of the Global Fiscal Framework is a condition for disbursement of EUR 100 million macro-financial assistance to Bosnia and Herzegovina”, Ambassador Sorensen stated.
They touched upon the IPA Funds coordination issue. Šprić stated that this process must be created in a way that programming actively includes all-level authorities from the very first beginning, in order to secure general agreement on the projects to be proposed.
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