The Council of Peoples (CoP) in Bosnia’s Serb-dominated part should become a legislative body as is the House of Peoples in the other semi-autonomous part of the country, the main Bosniak party in the country said on Monday in response to Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik, who said he might initiate the abolishment of the body.
Dodik, who heads the ruling party in Bosnia’s semi-autonomous Republika Srpska (RS) entity, said recently he would initiate changes in theRS Constitution that would abolish the CoP there if the Federation (FBiH), Bosnia’s other entity which is mainly shared by Bosniaks and Croats, does not solve its problem with filling the Serb Caucus in its upper house, the FBiH House of Peoples (HoP), with the prescribed number of Serbs.
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Both of Bosnia's entities have their own state-like governments but are linked into a country by a joint set of institutions.
Within its parliament, Republika Srpska has a body called Council of Peoples which has legislative power when it comes to issues of vital national interests of Serbs, Croats and Bosniaks. It does not enact laws, regulations and other acts with the Bosnian Serb parliament.
The RS CoP only monitors adopted laws and sends its objections to the Republika Srpska Constitutional Court when it decides the passed laws hurt the interests of either Bosniaks, Croats or Serbs. The Court then has the final say.
The other region, however, has a parliament with a lower and an upper house – called the House of Peoples (HoP). Its competencies are much broader than those exercised by the CoP in Republika Srpska. Any law the lower house of the Bosniak-Croat Federation passes must also be approved by the HoP.
However, since 2000, the HoP lacks the prescribed number of Serbs and Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik said unless the caucus is filled, he will initiate the complete annulment of the CoP in Republika Srpska.
“I am not threatening, but if we cannot have that caucus filled, why would we be servile to others in Republika Srpska,” said Dodik, now outgoing President of that entity.
That would mean that the mechanism within the RS Assembly that allows Bosniaks and Croats to question laws they deem harmful for their national interest would disappear.
“Although it is not filled, the Serb Caucus in the FBiH Parliament is fulfilling its constitutional role,” while the RS CoP, although filled, is not able to do so due to manipulations within the RS Constitutional Court,” the Party for Democratic Action (SDA) said in a statement responding to Dodik.
The SDA announced that it will ask for such manipulations to be abolished.
“A true solution is, and the SDA will request this, to introduce symmetric mechanisms for protecting vital national interests in both entities,” the statement said.
“The RS CoP needs to become a legislative body in full capacity as is the HoP of the FBiH Parliament,” it said.
