The leaders of the state-level ruling coalition, Troika parties, Croat Democratic Union (HDZ BiH) and the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD) held another fruitless meeting in Sarajevo, after which the SNSD leader Milorad Dodik said that they failed to reach an agreement on the courts in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

“The problem of the seat of the Appellate Division remains. Today we heard that the Bosniak side doesn’t support the idea of an Appellate Division, but some form of Court. This means that we haven’t reached an agreement, and the key issue is the seat of that department. We believe that it should be in Banja Luka, the partners from FBiH insist on another location,” Dodik said.

“This meeting didn’t give or receive any results. Regarding the Constitutional Court, we have some variants that we proposed earlier. The working group for drafting the Electoral Law has been completed and will continue to exist in that form. The FBiH partners have to resolve the issue of how to elect the BiH Presidency members. The RS continues to vote directly, one member from the RS. We will continue to talk further. I am sorry that we haven’t been able to harmonize these two laws. That was the package and now we don't have that package coordinated,” said Dodik.

Regarding the possibility of reaching an agreement at the next meeting, he said:

“The next meeting is not possible, we have determined this one as crucial. If the people from the FBiH dispute Banja Luka [as the seat of the Appellate Division, then they’re denying the statehood. In essence, we didn’t ask for it to be moved to Sri Lanka, but to be within the framework of what is called Bosnia and Herzegovina, in Banja Luka,” Dodik said.

Banja Luka is wonderful but…

“Banja Luka is wonderful, but the headquarters of the Second Instance Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina should be in Istocno Sarajevo” People and Justice (NiP) party Leader Elemedin Konakovic insisted.

“There is no sense for people to be transported, for them to travel, it is a practical thing, that's what all practical people will tell you. Get the experts to tell you. We say Istocno Sarajevo, it’s part of the BiH entity of Republika Srpska. Bosniaks are not preventing Serbs from anything there, there's the state prison, SIPA is also there,” Konakovic noted.

It will be crucial, he added, if the partners can focus on the things they can agree on.

“I think that the EU, unlike Dodik, will be more concrete and that a large support package would be significant for all the inhabitants of BiH. I spoke in Slovenia with the representatives of Serbia, who say that this support package would raise Serbia's GDP by 1.5%, imagine the impact it would have on us,” Konakovic concluded.