Unless the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH) entity gets the 019 budged by February 1, the entity will face a total financial collapse and all budget payments will cease, said FBiH House of Peoples Deputy Speaker Jasenko Tufekcic.

“The House of Peoples has full legitimacy and legality to pass decisions earlier adopted by the FBiH House of Representatives which would enable a normal life in the FBiH. That also means it can adopt the 2019 Budget,” Tufekcic said. “The most important thing right now is to ensure the payment of pensions, veteran and disability fees as well as welfare payments.” 

After the October general election in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the FBiH entity has been struggling to form the government and get new houses of the FBiH Parliament. The current formation of the FBiH House of Peoples is in the so-called technical mandate, meaning that the old formation is still active and that the newly elected officials are still not sworn in.  

The crux of the problem is the inability to agree on the model of implementation of election results due to a number of court rulings demanding a change to the Election Law.  

These rulings were never implemented, and all eyes are now on the State Central Election Commission which is the only body that can say how the October election results will be implemented.  

“The most dangerous thing would be to do nothing by February 1. It seems to me this is creating controlled chaos which suits our citizens the least,” Tufekcic noted. 

The FBiH is facing a total financial blockade because the 2019 Budget adopted by the FBiH House of Representatives cannot be implemented without the confirmation of the FBiH House of Peoples, but the House of Peoples has not had a single session yet because some House representatives claim it would be illegitimate.  

At the same time, the Office of the High Representatives which oversees the civilian implementation of the Dayton Peace Agreement, that ended the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia, the EU Delegation and embassies of the US and Germany have also warned the FBiH House of Peoples that they do not have the legitimacy to make any decisions or to approve the 2019 entity budget.