Bevanda: Zvizdic's statements not official state position

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Bosnia’s Finance and Treasury Minister Vjekoslav Bevanda said that the’s Council of Ministers Chairman Denis Zvizdic has been acting on his own behalf in communication with other states, meddling into other ministers’ competencies, thus causing damage to Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Reacting to Zvizdic's statement in which he stated that he would write to the Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic and leaders of the EU because of the construction of the Peljesac Bridge, Bevanda warned that the Council of Ministers (CoM) did not discuss this issue and that Bosnia does not have an official position on the matter.

“If we are going to express our personal opinions and the opinions of Bosnian residents concerning the Peljesac Bridge, then we should welcome the signing of the construction contract and the beginning of the construction works because our only town with access to the sea, Neum, will be free of summer traffic chaos, thus improving the town’s tourist offer,” Bevanda said.

He added that the CoM did not adopt the House of Representatives’ conclusion from 2017 requesting that the CoM sends a protest note to Croatia, demanding the cessation of all construction activities on the Peljesac Bridge until a consensus between the states is reached.

Also, several days later, the CoM adopted the Traffic Minister’s report stating that there were no formal obstacles concerning the Peljesac Bridge and that the matter should not be linked to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

According to Bevanda, one could conclude that these are just pre-election activities of Chairman Zvizdic and his Democratic Action Party, not the executive body he chairs. He called on other Bosnia high officials to leave the election campaign aside and to deal with Bosnia’s interests, its relations with its neighbours and the EU.