President of the Constitutional Court of BiH, Mirsad Ćeman and Vice-President of the Constitutional Court of BiH, Zlatko M. Knežević, together with their associates, had a working meeting today with Edin Mušić, Chair of the House of Representatives of the Parliament of Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Lidija Bradara and Fadil Novalić, the Chair of the House of Peoples of the Parliament of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Prime-Minister of the Government of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The topic of the meeting was enforcement of decisions of the Constitutional Court of BiH that give rise to obligations of the institutions and authorities of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. A particular focus was the non-enforcement of the decision of Constitutional Court U 15/11 of 30 March 2012 and consequences that could ensue as a result thereof, on which, considering the case-law of the ECtHR, the President and Vice-President have informed the key persons from the Government and Parliament of Federation of BiH.
At its 66th session of the Grand Chamber, held on 31 January 2018, within the practice of regular updating on the status of enforcement of its decisions, inter alia, the Constitutional Court concluded that the competent ministry, the Government of F BiH and Parliament of F BiH have not yet acted upon the order referred to in the Decision of the Constitutional Court no. U 15/11 and that the relevant provision of the Federal Law on Sale of Apartments with Occupancy Right in the part relating to compensation is not harmonized with Article II(3)(k) of the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Article 1 of Protocol no. 1 to the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.
The representatives of the Parliament and Government of F BiH informed the Constitutional Court on the activities taken in the period from the adoption of decision of the Constitutional Court to today concerning the implementation of the referenced decision and other decisions. They emphasized that there is a willingness in the Federation of BiH to enforce the decisions of the Constitutional Court but that in the instant case although there were attempts, the challenged provisions of the Law were not harmonized with the Constitution of BiH as necessary support in the legislative procedure on the proposed solutions could not have been reached.
The Constitutional Court was informed that a Draft Law to implement the Decision of the Constitutional Court no. U 15/11 is prepared in the competent Federal Ministry. The assurances were given that the Government of F BiH will pretty quickly determine a Draft Law and submit it to the parliamentary procedure for the purpose of its adoption under urgent procedure.
The meeting was mutually found as being very valuable with a conclusion that it encouraged the process that will in the end and pretty quickly result in harmonization of the challenged provisions of the Law with the above-referenced decision of the Constitutional Court. That is particularly important considering that almost six years has passed from the adoption of the decision of the Constitutional Court that gave rise to obligations for the authorities of the Federation of BiH.
The present agreed that the activities of the Government and Parliament of F BiH concerning the implementation of the decision taken during the past period, were ineffective and that the fact that the decision of the Constitutional Court was not implemented, regardless of reasons, cannot be justified.
