The state coalition leaders met on Thursday in Sarajevo and agreed to send for adoption four laws, including the one on the prevention of money laundering, said Nermin Niksic, the leader of the Social-Democratic Party (SDP) following the meeting. Pročitaj više

“It seems like there are no spectacular results anytime we meet, but we are getting to agreement step by step,” said Niksic, adding that all participants of the talks agreed it was important to meet the conditions for the opening of the accession talks with the European Union.

He also said that the political leaders agreed they would insist on a specific date of the opening of the talks, if they get the green light for that.

Dragan Covic, the leader of the Croat Democratic Party (HDZ BiH), said it was important to get a precise date, to get motivated to complete the work.

According to Niksic, the leaders agreed to form three task groups that will be working on the legislation treating the conflict of interests, the election law and the law on courts throughout the next week.

Leader of the Alliance of the Independent Social Democrats (SNSD) Milorad Dodik said that his party is in favour of Bosnia's EU path but that this will not happen if the international peace envoy, High Representative Christian Schmidt imposes a law.

He confirmed that the leaders agreed to work on three laws, and that they already harmonised the law on the prevention of money laundering.

Dodik is convinced that agreement can also be reached on the law on conflict of interests at the state level, which will not treat this issue at lower levels of authority.

As for the law on courts, there are various proposals and task groups will work to harmonise a single solution.

“We continue to work on the electoral elgislation too. We're not running away from the implementation of the integrity measures, but we will not give our consent to the solution that Schmidt wants to impose,” he stressed.

Dodik also insisted on the precise date of the opening of the accession talks with the EU, if it is approved.

“We don't want to see the same fate as other countries. Please, give us a date. We will need a number of experts who will be working on negotiations. If there is no date, then the EU continues to play with us, there is no incentive and BiH will go on be a colony,” said Dodik.