Christian Schmidt, the international peace envoy in Bosnia and Herzegovina has called on local authorities in the Una-Sana Canton to “launch the process of revision of current laws and regulations that refer to various categories of the state and public property” in that part of the country.

Schmidt, who took post of High Representative in August last year with mandate to impose laws and dismiss officials, sent a note to prime minister of the Una-Sana Canton, one of ten administrative units in Bosnia's Federation entity (FBiH), reminding that the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina made assessment of a few laws in Republika Srpska entitiy (RS), which regulate the issue of state property and public good and established a few violations in those instances.

He said that the court decision primarily refers to a 2012 case, when the Court established that the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina is the owner of the state property and has exclusive competency to manage it through existing laws adopted by the Parliament of BiH. Other court decisions that affirm the initial one followed in September 2021 and February 2022, Schmidt recalled, stressing that the said decisions and principles established by the Constitutional Court apply to entire territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina, including the Una-Sana Canton.

“In the interest of preserving the rule of law and protecting the property interests of the state of BiH and other entities, please initiate a process of revision of existing laws and regulations relating to different categories of state and public property in your canton. Some of these laws and regulations were adopted several years before the relevant decisions of the BiH Constitutional Court regarding state property, so it would be necessary for the competent USC institutions to carefully review all relevant laws and regulations, and to amend them if necessary in accordance with the principles contained in the relevant decisions of the Constitutional Court of BiH,” Schmidt wrote in the letter to PM Mustafa Ruznic.

He offered the assistance of the Office of the High Representative in completing this process, “if they find it useful.”

N1, which is in the possession of Schmidt's letter, learns that a note of similar content will be sent to authorities of other cantons in the Federation entity.

Schmidt recently suspended the application of the Law on Immovable Property in Republika Srpska entity until the Constitutional Court reaches a final decision on the matter concerning the disputed legislation.