BOSNIA - RSNA DECLARES "TRANSFERRED COMPETENCIES"

C O N F I D E N T I A L SARAJEVO 000610 SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR EUR(JONES),EUR/SCE(FOOKS/MCGUIRE); NSC FOR HELGERSON E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/01/2015 TAGS: PGOV PINR PREL PHUM KDEM MARR EU BK SUBJECT: BOSNIA - RSNA DECLARES "TRANSFERRED COMPETENCIES" UNCONSTITUTIONAL REF: SARAJEVO 566 Classified By: Michael J. Murphy. Reasons 1.4(b) and (d). ¶1. (SBU) On May 14, the Republika Srpska National Assembly (RSNA) concluded its April 23 debate on competency transfers (Reftel) and adopted a set of conclusions that, in effect, declared (erroneously) that 65 "competencies" had been illegally transferred from the RS to the state. Only in three instances was an alleged competency transfer legal, which the RSNA defined as having been directly authorized by the RSNA itself: 1) defense, 2) the creation of the Indirect Taxation Authority (ITA),and 3) the creation of the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council (HJPC). The RSNA concluded that the other 65 "competency transfers" had been "imposed" by the High Representative and international community and had "not bred positive general results or fulfilled expectations with regard to rationality and efficiency." ¶2. (SBU) The RSNA conclusions called for RS representatives in state institutions and RS officials to take specific actions to challenge the illegal "competency transfers" and to prevent additional transfers. This included: -- Amending laws previously adopted by the BiH Parliamentary Assembly that, according to the RSNA, transferred competencies from the RS to the state. The RSNA calls for a specific remedy only in the case of the HJPC, calling for the creation of entity-level "sub-HJPCs." -- "Demanding" that RS representatives in the BiH Parliament "warn of any potential adoption of any act in the Parliamentary Assembly...that might serve to take over some competency of the entities, and seek the prior opinion of the (RSNA) in each such matter." -- Instigating "legal disputes before domestic and international judicial institutions" (Note: Milorad Zivkovic, BiH Parliamentary Speaker and member of RS PM Dodik's Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD),has already initiated several challenges to state-level bodies before Bosnia's Constitutional Court. End Note). -- Summoning "Republika Srpska representatives" in state-level bodies to appear annually before the RSNA to "share their positions and views of the transferred competencies." The RSNA suggests that this testimony along with its own annual analysis should guide the RS Government's (RSG) approach to negotiations over the state budget. -- Amending the Bosnian constitution to proscribe procedures for transferring competencies from the entities to the state. -- Assigning RSG ministries "to take measures and activities to ensure functioning of those competencies that are necessary at the Entity level...based on the facts established" by RSG assessment of "transferred competencies." ¶3. (SBU) For good measure, the RSNA conclusions close with a call for the transition from OHR to EUSR and a "demand" that the HighRep renounce the Bonn Powers. The RSNA also demands the HighRep reverse previous decisions removing individuals from office, which the RSNA asserts deprived them of "their fundamental human, civil, and political rights and freedoms." Comment -------------- ¶4. (C) In essence, the RSNA has declared much of the post-Dayton Bosnian state illegal and directed the RSG and RS officials, including "RS representatives" in state-level bodies, to use every available means at their disposal to dismantle it. As we have reported previously, the allegations made by Dodik, his government, and the RSNA that 68 competencies have been transferred to the state are false. Much of what the RS claims constituted a "competency transfer" was in fact nothing more than the creation of a state-level institution that provided the state with the capacity to fulfill its Dayton competencies or that fulfilled a European Partnership requirement. Taken at face value, the RSG's analysis on "competency transfers" and the subsequent RSNA conclusions are a demand for a return to the RS of 1995. ENGLISH