BHR (Epicentar), 22.01.2019. Radio broadcast of BHR1 hosted Rasim Ibrahimagić from the Initiative for Monitoring of the European Integration of BiH, Mr. Nikola Lovrinović, Chair of the Joint Committee on European Integration of Parliamentary Assembly BiH (HDZ) in 2014-2018, Osman Topčagić, Head of the Paneuropean Union BiH and former executive of the Directorate for European … Continued
Although the Convention itself does not refer directly to the media, the European Court of Human Rights, having in mind the importance of the media in the transmission of information, ideas and opinions, through its practice, emphasized the importance of the media in society. The media play a special role, as the European Court has stated – the role of a “public guard dog”.
Impartial reporting in the public interest is one of the basic obligations of all media, including BiH media. As such – free media, based on the principles of fair and accurate reporting, is one of the pillars of democracy. If there is no free media, there is no democracy. But if the media is biased, if they report unethical, who is responsible?
Bosnia and Herzegovina, on the World Bank ranking list, which is published as a Doing Business report, has been in a constant decline for the last four years. In the previous year, Bosnia and Herzegovina achieved the worst position, taking the 89th place out of 190 countries whose economies are covered by the report. The position of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the World Bank ranking list doesn’t give a good impression even when taking into account the mere numbers, and especially not in the case when the purpose of Doing Business is well known.
In cooperation with the Delegation of the European Union to BiH, Initiative for Monitoring of the European Integration of BiH organized a round table discussion on the topic “The current state of the process of European integration of Bosnia and Herzegovina”. The round table was held on January 11, 2019 in the premises of the EU Delegation to BiH.
Bosnia and Herzegovina is the only Western Balkan country that the European Commission report for 2018 has not yet adopted the resolution. The chances for it to happen in the time coming are small.
Harmonization of the Concession Law in BiH with the EU Directive 2014/23 is the first task BiH needs to solve, meaning BiH will have to take over the rules of EU Directive.
The European Union has set a task for BiH to grant equal rights to those who do not belong to constituent peoples, and not to provide HDZ a member of BiH Presidency.
Besides not showing any initiative, BiH government representatives still ignore serious challenges which they will face in the next year.
Apart from the Parliament, judicial control and independent bodies, civilian control is being carried out by the executive. In BiH, those are the institutions of the Presidency of BiH, the Council of Ministers of BiH, as well as the governments of RS, FBiH, Brčko Distrikt and cantonal governments.
Legal protection in the field of PPP is an essential issue because private partners need to know they can protect their interests in the procedure of awarding contracts, and thus directly influence the reduction of corruption in this area.
BiH is the only country in the region, but also one of the few in the world that has not adopted the BiH Foreign Affairs Law. Although there are plans for adoption of this Law at the appointment of each Council of Ministers of BiH, this has not yet been realized.