ZAGREB, December 12, 2018 – The Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina believes that by implementing its law on the management of state assets, Croatia is breaching the Yugoslavia succession agreement, and it will take legal, political and diplomatic steps so that Bosnia and Herzegovina can protect its property in Croatia, according to a statement issued after the first meeting of the new Presidency comprising Milorad Dodik, Željko Komšić and Šefik Džaferović.
The statement delivered to Hina notes that the Presidency has tasked the foreign ministry to send a note to the UN secretary-general as the depositor of the Yugoslav Agreement on Succession Issues of the Former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, informing him that Croatia is in breach of that agreement.
The head of Bosnia’s negotiation team in the Permanent Joint Commission of Country Successors of the Former Yugoslavia was tasked to convene an extraordinary meeting of the Commission because of Croatia’s breach.
The Presidency tasked the Council of Ministers to report on activities undertaken “in order to ensure the protection and restitution of property owned by physical and legal entities from Bosnia and Herzegovina and Bosnia and Herzegovina’s property located in the Republic of Croatia.”
Bosnia’s ombudsman was tasked to coordinate measures with entity privatisation agencies for the protection of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s property in Croatia and to define a model to lodge an appeal with Croatia’s Constitutional Court that would dispute the constitutionality of Croatia’s law on the management of state assets and relevant regulations which prevent the real owners in Bosnia and Herzegovina from being registered as owners in the appropriate land titles register.
The chairman of the Presidency, Milorad Dodik, will send a letter to Croatia’s President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović and Prime Minister Andrej Plenković, demanding that the agreement on succession and its annexes be applied in accordance with international law as a legal act that has priority in relation to domestic regulations. As such, it is necessary for Bosnia and Herzegovina’s property located in Croatia to be returned and for the actual owners to be registered in the land titles register, the statement said.
More news on the relations between Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina can be found in our Politics section.
