UNNECESSARY CONTESTING OF ADOPTION OF NEW SRPSKA CONSTITUTION

BANJA LUKA, MARCH 29 /SRNA/ - Member of the Working Group for drafting the new constitution of Republika Srpska Ljubinko Mitrović told SRNA that all challenges to the adoption of this highest legal act are incoherent and unnecessary, because it is an internal matter of a certain collective to change legal regulations.

Mitrović pointed out that Republika Srpska has its own Constitution, as does the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and that he does not see any reason for anyone to dispute the adoption of the new supreme legal act of Srpska.

"Certainly, it is time to adopt a new constitution for a number of reasons, and one of them is technical because the Constitution of Srpska has been amended 19 times from 1992 to today with more than 120 amendments. Drafting of legal regulations requires us to pass the final text of the constitution after the massive amendment changes", Mitrović stressed.

He noted that when adopting the new constitution, care is taken to ensure that it is in line with international standards and the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina, that is, the Dayton Agreement.

"Compared to the previous constitution, the draft constitution is quite interesting. It is standard when you look at the content. Human rights are positioned at an enviable level," Mitrović pointed out.

He expects that a large number of citizens and people from the legal profession will be involved in the public discussions on the Draft Constitution of Republika Srpska, which will begin on Monday, March 31, because it is an extremely interesting document that will receive its final form in this way.

"The discussion will be about the issues related to the provisions of the organization of the Republic in terms of the bodies that are treated by the constitution. An interesting issue will certainly be the one related to the armed forces," said Mitrović.

When it comes to returning jurisdiction to Republika Srpska, he assessed that everything that does not work or does not fit should be returned.

"If we could come to an agreement and talk about the transfer, why not come to an agreement and talk about the return of jurisdiction. Especially if you have some institutions that were created by the transfer of jurisdiction, but do not function at all, such as the Commission for Concessions at the BiH level, which spends more than a BAM million a year and has never awarded a single concession, but that is done by entity commissions. And, when you mention the abolition of that commission, certain people do not want to discuss it," Mitrović stated.

He repeated that everything is a matter of agreement, if there are parties that want to negotiate.

Public hearings on the Draft Constitution of Republika Srpska will begin next week, and the first will be held in East Sarajevo on Monday, March 31.

The National Assembly of Republika Srpska adopted a decision on the adoption of the Draft Constitution of Republika Srpska at a special session on March 13.