SARAJEVO (Bosnia and Herzegovina), November 30 (SeeNews) – The leaders of Bosnia’s main Muslim, Serb and Croat parties and the country's top peace envoy have agreed on changes in the central parliament’s voting procedure to extricate the Balkan nation from more than a month of political crisis, Bosnian media reported on Friday.
The changes were proposed last month by High Representative Miroslav Lajcak in a bid to improve voting procedure and preclude deadlocks in order to spur the reform process in Bosnia. But Bosnian Serbs dismissed the proposals as curbing their autonomy, which induced a crisis culminating in the resignation of Prime Minister Nikola Spiric, a Serb, on November 1.
A joint committee of the two chambers of the central parliament met earlier on Friday with Lajcak to discuss a compromise option before the December 1 deadline Lajcak gave parties to vote on the reforms, saying otherwise, he would impose them.
“The members of the Joint Committee […] have today agreed at a meeting with the High Representative Miroslav Lajcak the changes in the rules of procedure of the House of Representatives. The changes are in compliance with the Constitution of Bosnia and allow effective decision-making in Parliament,” Bosnia’s public broadcaster BHRT reported.
The text of the changes follows Lajcak’s proposal with some amendments introduced on Friday, BHRT said without elaborating.
The agreement will open the way for Bosnian leaders to continue talks on reforming the country’s ethnically divided police force, a requirement set by the European Union if Bosnia is to establish formally closer ties with the bloc.