Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina Holds Its 77th Session

APPROVED DISTRIBUTION OF KM 3.4 MILLION JAPANESE GRANT 

The Council of Ministers of BIH took a decision, proposed by the Ministry of Finance and Treasury, on distribution of a grant of the Japanese Government in amount of about KM 3.4 million extended to Bosnia and Herzegovina though a Nota Agreement – Exchange of Notes between the Council of ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Government of Japan on realisation of a grant support of the Japanese Government to Bosnia and Herzegovina for year 2015.

This approved a distribution of the Japanese Grant extended to BIH in terms of technical equipment (meteorological, medical and kit for natural/weather disaster protection), worth JPY 200,000.00 (about KM 3.4 million) to the Ministries of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations, Security and Civil Affairs.

The Ministries will start a legal procurement procedure and make possible receipt and distribution of the equipment to the grant end beneficiaries in water, heath and meteorology sectors.

 

CIRITERIA FOR NGOs FOR ASSITING FOREIGNERS

 

The Council of Ministers of BIH took two decisions, proposed by the Ministry of Security of BIH, on criteria for selection of one or more non-government organisations to take funds from the current grant “Legal Assistance to Immigration Centre Occupants” and “Accommodation and Legal Assistance to Foreigners, Human Trafficking Victims” for year 2016.

These decisions define both general and thematic criteria for the selection of one or more non-government organisations to receive grant funds for these purposes.

The Minister fop Security will designate a Committee to consider applications and will make a rank list for the grant funds allocation based on the prescribed criteria.

The Ministry of Security Budget item for grants to non-profit organisations, KM 100,000 was allocated for accommodation and legal assistance to foreign human trafficking victims, in addition to KM 20,000 for legal assistance to foreigners accommodated in the Immigration Centre. The right to access to free-of-charge legal assistance is a basic precondition for the execution of right to fair trial, in accordance to the European Convection on human rights.

The procedure and ways of both grant funds allocation will be made public by the Ministry of Security at its web site and in three daily newspapers for a 15-day period of time.

 

ACTION PLAN FOR COMBATING TERORISM ADOPTED

 

The Council of Ministers of BIH adopted a Ministry of Security-developed Action Plan for implementation of the 2015-2020 Strategy of Bosnia and Herzegovina for Prevention and Combating Terrorism.

The Plan is based an idea of a single coordinated approach to the Strategy implementation and capacity building within the competent BIH institutions at all-levels for prevention and combating terrorism and terrorism-related challenges.

The Action Plan contains a tabular break down of actions classified into seven key areas: legislation; institutional capacities; permanent training and practical ability checks; prevention; Protection; investigations; and response to terrorist incidents. The first three areas are designated as preconditions for implementation of all actions in prevention and combating  terrorism, while the remaining four areas  should serve for harmonisation of anti-terrorist measures with those implemented by the EU member countries.

The Action Plan was agreed and approved relevant all-level institutions/agencies in Bosnia and Herzegovina. A supervision body of the Council of Ministers of BIH is responsible for its implementation, which will carry our regular progress monitoring by planned goals and measures.

 

TO IMPORVE TRANSPARENCY BY NEW PUBLIC PROCUREMENT STRATEGY

 

The Council of Ministers of BIH adopted a 2016-2020 BIH Public Procurement System Development, proposed by the BIH Public Procurement Agency, in order to improve transparency and promote anti-corruption measures.

Among strategic aims there are further development and harmonisation of legislative framework with legislative developments in the EU and its good practice, in addition to the establishment of an effective coordination mechanism and public procurement system policy development.

The Strategy implementation targets strengthening of both institutional and operative capacities and public procurement system functionality, as well as the building of competitiveness among economic entities. The strategic aim was mentioned to be more focus to pursuing a “value for money” target, based on a proper and open competition, within the e-procurement system development.

The purpose of the Strategy is the harmonisation the BIH Public Procurement Law with the relevant EU Directives, adoption of a new regulation on monitoring, aiming the improvement of the current supervision system, and contracting bodies’ public procurement officers training. Among short-term results, there were specified development of an effective public procurement-related legal protection in BIH and development of modules for applying, offers assessment, and awarding in the e-procurements system (e-tendering and e-awarding).

An accompanying strategic Action Plan was adopted for 2016-2017, which defines competent institutions to take activities directed to short-term results.

 

IDDEEA DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY ADOPTED

 

The Council of Ministers of BIH adopted a 2016-2020 Development Strategy of the Identification Documents, Data Exchange and Evidence Agency (IDDEEA) of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

An environment analysis showed that in the first two years of the Strategy period, IDDEEA have to use its organisation advantage and own resources for optimisation and rationalisation  of work processes, for the sake of more effective operating and achieving key strategic goals in 2018-2020 time span.

The strategic aims, divided by operability and functionality, are grouped into seven parts, among which the increase of transparency and improvement of management process, personalisation and improvement of personal documents security, and issuance of qualified digital signature. The Strategy defines aims such as maintaining of technical condition for evidence keeping and strengthening of telecommunication capacities, optimisation and up-grading of work processes’ security, implementation of development-investment and international projects and strengthening of i9nternational cooperation, including strengthening of human potentials.

 

REGISTRATION OF FOOD ORIGINALITY AND GEOGRAPHIC ORIGIN MARKS

 

The Council of Ministers of BIH took a Decision on authorising legal persons for the area of registration of originality and geographic origin marks of nutritive products and Decision on the level of fees for the food originality and geographic origin mark registration, proposed by the BIH Food Security Agency.

These Decisions enable implementation of a Regulation on food originality and geographic origin marks, because they create conditions for interested food business entities in BIH to apply for registration of food originality and food geographic origin marks, and to protect, register and place to market their food products labelled by recognisable marks.

Based on a tendering process implemented, certification bodies were defined for certifying harmonisation of production, processing and the end products with the accompanying specification and for controls over production, processing and the end products. The authorised   bodies are Herkon, Ltd. Mostar and Organic Control, Ltd. Sarajevo. The supervision over certification bodies will be carried out by the BIH Food Security Agency.

Also, the level of fees for registration was defined, so a KM 30.00 application fee for registration of food originality and food geographic origin mark was defined, and that includes entering into register, while the registration of new users of the registered mark costs KM 100.00. The fee for starting the registration process costs KM 500.00.

 

FORMING “PARTNERSIP FOR OPEN OVERNMENT” ADVISRY COUNCIL

 

The Council of Ministers of BIH took a Decision on forming an Advisory Council of the “Partnership for Open Government” Initiative, tasked to prepare a Proposal Framework Actin Plan for the Partnership implementation. The Framework Action Plan consists of the Action Plans of the Council of Ministers of BIH, Governments of Republika Srpska and Federation of BIH and Government of the Brčko District of BIH.

The Advisory Council will compile the separate Action Plans into the Framework Action Plan, which will be sent to the Council of Ministers of BIH for adoption and subsequently forwarded to bodies of the “Partnership for Open Government” international initiative for verification.

The proposed membership of the Advisory Council will be consisted of four members from the Council of Ministers of BIH, two from each Governments of Republika Srpska, the Federation of BIH and Brčko District of BIH, and four representatives from civil society organisations.

The Council will have advisory and coordination role for encouraging transparency and openness of public administration bodies, and for the inclusion of citizens and civil society organisations into shaping public policies, in accordance with the “”Partnership for Open government ” Initiative.

The aim of the “Partnership for Open Government” is to secure a concrete progress in the areas of transparency and openness of in the work of public administration bodies, inclusion and empowering of citizens and civil society, anti-corruption actions, and use of new technologies for the quality improvement of public administration service provision to citizens.

 

AMENDED AGREEMENT ON ROAD TRANSPORT BETWEEN BIH AND BULGARIA

 

The Council of Ministers of BIH defined Proposal Basics for negotiations on an Agreement on Amendments and Supplements to the Agreement between the Council of Ministers of BIH and Government of the Republic of Bulgaria on International Road Transport of Passengers and Goods.

The Amendments and Supplements to the Agreement specify certain provisions and define that a Joint Commission, comprised of Representative of competent bodies of the two countries will not have a discretion decision-making right concerning the exemption from toll for certain types of transport, since the issue is regulated by national laws.

The Ministry of Communication and Transport of BIH will provide the Proposal Agreement to the BIH Presidency for further procedure, and the Minister of Communications and Transport of BIH was proposed as the BIH signatory.

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