The President of Bosnia’s Serb-dominated Republika Srpska (RS) entity, Milorad Dodik, said that the priority of the newly formed Government is to preserve the entity's stability, especially political stability and to return the transferred competencies from the state level.  

“At the level of BiH, we remain committed to the constitutional position of BiH. We remain committed to preserving the RS position, stopping the transfer of any competencies and returning the competencies that were illegitimately and under pressure taken away from the RS”.

Dodik requested that the RS Government requests a joint session with the state-level government, officially called the Council of Ministers.

“With the Federation (FBiH) entity, we should open all kinds of economic and infrastructural cooperation, wait for the formation of the new FBiH government and then hold a joint session of the two governments and reach a protocol that will make it easier to work at the BiH level. The conditions are being made that after the election of the BiH Cabinet, the RS Government will request a joint session with the BiH Council of Ministers in order to determine certain policies and developments.”

When it comes to his attitude towards the EU integration process, Dodik said that he is not satisfied with the way the RS is treated.

“The attitude towards the EU will remain at the level of the need to declare ourselves as those who are in favour [of integration] but we will clearly say that in this regard we are not satisfied with the fact that the RS is being treated in this way. If they return the position of the RS to its constitutional capacity, we can restore cooperation”.

He also said that the RS will remain opposed to Bosnia’s NATO integration.

“Republika Srpska remains against NATO integration. Certain forms of cooperation are possible, but we will see how that cooperation will take place. A program of reforms was adopted, but we see that it is being interpreted differently and we must be careful,” the RS President concluded.