Political leaders of BiH Parliaments agreed to strengthen the Parliaments’ role in European integration process and to adopt action plans facilitating and accelerating the preparation of Parliaments for EU integration tasks

The leaders of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Parliament of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the National Assembly of Republika Srpska and the Brčko District Assembly met in Bijeljina on 12 November to discuss issues on cooperation and implementation of actions and recommendations elaborated so far during the 2-year long Twinning Project Enhancing the role of parliaments in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the EU integration context.

This EU funded project has reached its final phase of implementation which necessitated direct discussions with all the highest level representatives of BIH Parliaments as well as the Head of the Delegation of the European Union to Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Project has elaborated so far several recommendations in all aspects of parliamentary functioning with special regard to the tasks related to the EU integration process.

During the conference, which was the second of this kind after the first ever such meeting held in Međugorje on 19 March 2015, the participants considered three main topics such as taking measures to implement the recommendations of the Twinning Project for enhancing the role of parliaments in the EU integration context in a coordinated way; examining the possible system of informal cooperation between the BiH Parliaments in order to ensure coordinated actions needed in EU integration process. As a third issue, further necessary support to the Parliaments of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the EU integration process was discussed, with special regard to the follow-up on implementation of the recommendations of the Twinning Project after its conclusion in January 2016.

At the end of the political level meeting, Conclusions of the Conference was adopted and signed:

1. The Collegiums of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Parliament of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the National Assembly of Republika Srpska in one of their sessions and the Assembly of the Brčko District of Bosnia and Herzegovina in line with its corresponding procedure will, by the end of this year, approve the attached Joint Statement on the commitment towards the EU integration by taking measures to implement the recommendations of the EU funded Twinning Project for enhancing the role of parliaments in the EU integration context (hereinafter: Twinning Project). The working versions of Action Plans for each Parliament on the measures to implement the recommendations of the Twinning Project are attached to the Joint Statement.
2. Based on the attached Concept paper on cooperation mechanism for the Parliaments of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the tasks of the EU integration process prepared by the Twinning Project and in line with the comments made by the participants of the Conference, the Twinning Project shall finalize the concept of the cooperation mechanism and submit it to the Leaders of the BiH Parliaments for adoption at their next conference to be held in January 2016 at the end of the Twinning Project.
3. The BiH parliamentary SPO leader of the Projects and his counterparts representing the Parliaments of Bosnia and Herzegovina are to prepare the concept of a new Twinning Project for further support of the Parliaments with special focus on assisting the implementation of the Action Plans. This concept should be submitted to the Delegation of the European Union to Bosnia and Herzegovina (hereinafter: EU Delegation) before the end of the year. The Cantonal Assemblies are to be involved in the new project under the coordination of the House of Peoples of the Parliament of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Discussions on further assistance related especially to the support of the development of the IT and e-parliament infrastructure of the BiH Parliaments should be started with the EU Delegation in the first half of 2016.
4. Based on the recommendations of the Twinning Project, decisions will be taken in all BiH Parliaments to establish EU Units (EU adviser in BDA) and to make them functional by January 2016.

H.E. Ambassador Lars-Gunnar Wigemark, Head of EU Delegation to BiH and EU Special Representative in BiH, also addressed the participants.