KOVAČEVIĆ: AMENDMENTS ARE THE ONLY WAY FOR CHANGES TO LAW ON COURT AND HJPC TO PASS THE SECOND READING

SARAJEVO, JULY 21 /SRNA/ - Serb member of the House of Peoples of the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH Radovan Kovačević said today that the Bill on the Court of BiH and the Bill on the HJPC will only be supported in the second reading if the SNSD's amendments are accepted, stressing that this party is only seeking respect for the Constitution of BiH.

Kovačević said that the SNSD had prepared seven amendments to the amendments to the Law on the Court, and 17 amendments to the Bill on the HJPC, explaining that the first amendment concerns the procedure for selecting the president of the Appellate Division and another 15 judges, namely that they should be selected through a public competition conducted by the HJPC. He stated that more than half of the judges cannot come from the territory of one of the entities in BiH, meaning that six judges should be from among the Bosniak people, five from among the Serb people, four from among the Croat people, and one from among the Others. "That is what respecting the constitutional structure and the Constitution in BiH means," Kovačević said at a press conference in Sarajevo. He said that it had been agreed that the seat of the Appellate Division should be in Republika Srpska, namely in Banja Luka, stressing that comments such as "Who in their right mind would go to Banja Luka?" were offensive to everyone in Srpska. Regarding the HJPC, Kovačević recalled the conclusions adopted by the National Assembly of Republika Srpska in 2004, when it set the conditions under which it would allow the agreement on the establishment of the Council to be signed, noting that one of those conditions was that the HJPC must be located in Istočno Sarajevo. "We are asking for this to be respected. It also states that the constitutional structure must be respected. We are asking for this to be respected, and we have provided for all of that through these amendments, which MP Sredoje Nović has also spoken about at length," Kovačević said. According to him, the proposal concerns 24 members of the HJPC, who would be elected by institutions at all levels, namely the Council of Ministers, the Parliamentary Assembly, the Governments of Republika Srpska and the Federation of BiH, the National Assembly of Republika Srpska, the Parliament of the Federation of BiH, as well as institutions from Brčko District. "The conclusions of the National Assembly state that there must be a sub-council for Republika Srpska. Why Dragan Mikerević signed the agreement without that is another question," Kovačević said. He added that the proposal concerns a sub-council for Republika Srpska, a sub-council for the Federation of BiH, and a sub-council for appointments at the level of BiH and Brčko District, stressing that two-thirds of the members of each sub-council must participate in decision-making. He explained that no appointment of judges or prosecutors in Republika Srpska could be made without the approval of two-thirds of the members of the relevant sub-council from Republika Srpska, and that the same would apply to the Federation of BiH, the BiH level and Brčko District. "These are solutions that respect the Constitution, the constitutional structure and the constitutional order in BiH, and are entirely realistic and acceptable to everyone. We are not seeking anything for Republika Srpska that we do not also grant to the Federation of BiH," Kovačević stressed. He stressed that the SNSD is seeking only what is a basic principle of BiH, and that is equality. "Republika Srpska has no problem with these solutions; with these solutions we can move forward, while without them it will be difficult for us to make progress," Kovačević concluded.