Bosnian Parliament's upper chamber on Friday unanimously adopted the Proposal of Law on the Prevention of Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorist Activities, meeting one of the crucial conditions on the country's path to the European Union.

The lack of this legislation also threatened Bosnia and Herzegovina to end up on the MONEYVAL's ‘grey list’ i.e. the list of the countries with strategic shortcomings in the system of the prevention of money laundering and financing of terrorism.

In practice, this would mean further controls of all payments and financial transactions with Bosnia and Herzegovina, but also a negative influence of the country in the international relations as well as the decline in investments, which would make its participation in the international trade difficult.

Prior to the vote and adoption at the House of Peoples, the House of Representatives adopted the legislation in December last year.

The urgent session was called by the Bosniak Caucus.

EU ambassador in BiH Johann Sattler welcomed the law adoption, calling or “keeping the momentum.”

“A number of key reforms, including the Law on Conflict of Interest & Law on Courts remain,” he said.

Bosnian authorities are expected to adopt a set of laws prior to the session of the European Council in March to potentially get a green light for the opening of accession talks with EU.