Dnevni avaz: BiH has not yet started the process of ratification of the long waited Stabilization and Association Agreement with the European Union because of trivial reasons, which are related to the process of public procurements for the copies of that document.
The Agreement, which in total has more than 1.300 pages, cannot be directed to the procedure of ratification before the tender for printing of sufficient number of copies of that document has been implemented, "Dnevni avaz" finds out. More than hundred of copies of the SAA, in all official languages in BiH, should be delivered to the Presidency of BiH, the Council of Ministers of BiH and the Parliament, which requires expenditures which are going over the price that can be paid without the tender and process of public procurement.
This means that in BiH copying and binding the SAA will have to initiate the process of public call, wait for at least three proposals, and probably the appeal process of some of the participants of the tender. Nobody in this moment can know how long that process should last and how long will BiH wait on ratification of the SAA.
Among the problems, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of BiH was found first. It has the task to initiate the process of ratification. Minister Sven Alkalaj has in the announcement for our paper confirmed that there is a problem, but the Ministry has offered the solution which was not accepted by the Council of Ministers of BiH.
Three institutions give their opinions
The European Parliament, as our paper has written earlier, has already started the process of approving the SAA. In BiH the SAA first needs to be approved by the Council of Ministers, and then the Parliament of BiH should give its opinion, and at the end, the final decision on ratification should be brought by the Presidency of BiH. Without ratification of the SAA, it cannot totally inure, and by then the Interim Agreement which is generally related to the trade relations of BiH and the EU, is the only one that applies.
We have suggested elegantly bypassing it in harmonization with the modern processes, and delivering the Agreement on a DVD to the Council of Ministers of BiH and to all the parliamentarians. They would have an insight in the whole Agreement, and it would cost less.
However, we have received the answer from the Council of Ministers of BiH that they want the hard copies. Copying, binding and everything else costs – says Alkalaj. According to him, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has already taken the steps to implement the tender, but by the time this procedure is finished, this could last. This procedure had to be finished in an interventional way, but not like this. BiH must be the first one to ratify the SAA in order for it to expect some of the countries of the EU to initiate this question. We have dictated our ambassadors in the EU to ask for ratification, but we have received the question if BiH has done this – says Alkalaj.