Agreement finally reached on BiH government

11/01/2007

Nikola Spiric, a finance professor from Banja Luka, is the new prime minister of BiH under an agreement reached among the parties that won the last general election.

By Antonio Prlenda for Southeast European Times in Sarajevo – 11/01/07

Members of the BiH presidency -- Haris Silajdzic (left), Zeljko Komsic (second from left) and Nebojsa Radmanovic (second from right) -- congratulate Prime Minister-designate Nikola Spiric. [Getty Images]

Three months after the general elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), the winning political parties finally agreed on the ethnic composition of the new state government and parliamentary assembly.

At the January 3rd session of the new BiH tripartite presidency, led by its chairman, Nebojsa Radmanovic, the parties agreed that the new BiH prime minister would be Nikola Spiric, 50, a Bosnian Serb professor of finance and former member of parliament from the SNSD party.

Spiric will serve as chairman of the BiH Council of Ministers. Bosnian Serb representatives will have two other ministerial positions (Foreign Trade and Civil Affairs). There will be four Bosniak ministers (Foreign Affairs, Security, Defence, and Human Rights and Refugees), and three Croat ministers (Communication and Transport, Justice and Finance).

The chairman of the House of Representatives in the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH will be Beriz Belkic, a Bosniak from the SBiH, while his deputies will be Niko Lozancic of HDZBiH and Milorad Zivkovic of the SNSD.

The seven parties -- the SDA, Party for BiH (SBiH), SNSD, PDP, HDZBiH, HDZ 1990 and NS for Improvement -- also agreed on an overall strategy. Key goals include constitutional reform, boosting foreign investment and meeting the preconditions for signing a Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) with the EU, as well as the preconditions for joining NATO.

Brussels has identified reform of the police and broadcast systems, co-operation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, an overhaul of public administration and education, and a more robust fight against corruption as requirements for the SAA.

"I am sure I'll do everything to improve the life of our citizens each day," said Spiric after his appointment. He said he expects the BiH Council of Ministers to be fully operational no later than the first week of February.

High Representative and EU Special Representative Christian Schwarz-Schilling welcomed the seven-party agreement. He expressed satisfaction with the government's plans to concentrate its efforts on the SAA and prospects for Euro-Atlantic integration.

However, Nerzuk Curak, a political analyst and professor at the University of Sarajevo, notes that the parties have contrasting positions on major issues. The SBiH and SNSD have differing views on the BiH constitution. The SBiH strongly opposes the long-term existence of Republika Srpska, while for the SNSD, the subject is not open to negotiation.

"The fact that the SBiH gave so many votes for Spiric as prime minister could mean two things," Curak said. "Either SBiH leader Silajdzic is not competent, or there is an undercover agreement that either party's stance could be softened in the future."