SARAJEVO – The conclusions adopted by the National Assembly of the Republika Srpska constitute a serious threat to the country’s constitutional order and as such are anti-Dayton and directly undermine BiH’s Euro-Atlantic path, reads the joint statement by the Embassies of the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, the European Union Delegation to BiH and the EU Special Representative in BiH.
“Quint” and the EU reacted to the conclusions adopted by the National Assembly of Republika Srpska on “collapse of the legal order in BiH by violating the Dayton peace agreement by unlawful action of High Representative in BiH, anti-Dayton action of the Constitutional Court of BiH, the court and the prosecutor’s office of BiH”.
Ahead of the adoption of the conclusions, it was clarified that they were prompted by the ongoing trial of the President of RS Milorad Dodik and the acting director of the “Official Gazette of the Republika Srpska” Miloš Lukić before the Court of BiH for disrespecting the decisions of the High Representative in BiH Christian Schmidt.
The court process against Dodik is ongoing because he signed presidential decrees and thus declared two Republika Srpska laws, which were previously annulled by the high representative, valid.
Among the 13 conclusions adopted by the National Assembly of the Republika Srpska on 25 December is the request that the political representatives of the Republic of Srpska from the Serb constituencies in the joint institutions of BiH suspend decision-making at the level of BiH, except in the case of decision-making by which the transfer of competence from Srpska to the level of joint institutions is carried out or the position of the RS is otherwise jeopardized, “until the EU provides normal and fair conditions and standards of trial in BiH”.
In addition, the Parliament of RS demands from the political representatives of the RS in the BIH institutions to suspend decision-making in the domain of the EU integration, “until conditions are established for this process to take place “in accordance with the postulates of democracy and the rule of law”.
Furthermore, the conclusions of the National Assembly state that the “unconstitutional prosecutor’s Office of BiH and the Court of BiH are conducting a politically mounted trial against the representatives of Republika Srpska, which is based on illegally imposed decisions of Christian Schmidt”.
On the other hand, the Quint and the EU state that The Dayton Peace Agreement (DPA) and BiH Constitution “are conclusive about the primacy of both the Constitution and the Constitutional Court of BiH”.
“All legislation and conclusions adopted by lower-level bodies – including the parliamentary bodies of both entities – must comply with the Constitution, in line with BiH Constitutional Court jurisprudence. Further, neither entity has the authority to challenge the primacy of BiH institutions or laws”, the joint statement says.