The Delegation of the European Union in Sarajevo has praised Bosnia’s House of Peoples (HoP) after it on Tuesday adopted necessary changes to the Law on Criminal Procedure.
‘With today’s outcome, political parties have shown readiness to take important decisions in the interest of citizens based on compromise, and undertake efforts to implement the BiH Constitutional Court decisions,’ an EU Delegation statement said.
Bosnia’s House of Peoples has unanimously adopted necessary changes to the Law on Criminal Procedure on Tuesday, and now the text of the changed law needs to be harmonised with the changes the House of Representatives adopted earlier.
The Constitutional Court in 2016 declared some of the articles within the law addressing the process of granting immunity from legal prosecution, physical search and special investigative procedures unconstitutional and gave lawmakers six months to adopt adequate changes.
Lawmakers failed to do so until now.
The adopted changes were proposed by Halid Genjac, a lawmaker from the Party of Democratic Action (SDA) within the chamber’s Bosniak Caucus.
The European Commission has in April named the changes to the law a major concern in its Progress Report for Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Changing the law ‘will be essential for the rule of law institutions’ ability to preserve the country’s security, to conduct sensitive investigations and to offer witness immunity as well as cooperating with international law enforcement agencies such as Interpol and Europol,’ the EC also said in June.
RELATED NEWS
