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SARAJEVO, December 30 (FENA) – This past year was marked by numerous political disagreements in BiH, partly due to the fact it was an election year, but also due to many problems which were difficult to solve, such as increased influx of migrants and population leaving the country.
Even though it was speculated that migrant crisis will not affect BiH, “Balkan route” transferred to BiH in 2018, and according to competent institutions, 23.690 migrants entered BiH until December 25, of which 1.358 filed asylum request.
Biggest concentration of migrants has been in Sarajevo and Una-Sana Canton municipalities.
Second problem local authorities have been dealing with for years has been high number of citizens leaving BiH. Data shows that more than 15.000 citizens have left BiH and they stated the main reason is unemployment.
General elections were held in 2018 without adoption of amendments to the Election Law.
Turnout was a bit higher than 53 percent and after the election results executive authority still has not been formed in most cantons and on Federation and state level.
When it comes to foreign policy, key events were related to the European path and the fact that BiH submitted answers to 3.242 questions from the Questionnaire of the European Commission in February, which took 14 months.
European Commission then sent additional 655 questions, but answers still have not been delivered to Brussels. After BiH finishes the job, the European Commission will prepare an Opinion about request of BiH for the EU membership, and BiH, apart from Kosovo, is the only state of the region without status of a candidate country.
Positive news about a green light for activation of the Membership Action Plan (MAP) came at the end of the year and BiH was given a task to make the Annual National Plan, which ultimately leads to activation of MAP.
Representatives from Republika Srpska repeated their stance on BiH’s progress on its NATO path, which is linked to Serbia’s stance on military neutrality.
Tasks from the Reform Agenda, a document that representative of all parliamentary parties in BiH signed four years ago, were being solved this year, and the most specific results were achieved in reform of labor and pension legislation and stabilization of public finance.
Even though there were protest gatherings, the biggest one was a long-month fight of parents of killed young man David Dragičević in Banja Luka, which had most media coverage.
When it comes to this case, police first concluded it was a suicide, however parents have been constantly pointing to flaws in the investigation and launched a wide social campaign to reveal the truth about his death. Case still has not been solved.
Parents of David received support from citizens of Sarajevo and family of killed young man Dženan Memić, who is also blaming investigative bodies and the prosecution for inadequate investigation about his murder.
This year two police officers were murdered, Adis Šehović and Davor Vujnović, who were killed when they caught criminals stealing a car in Sarajevo. Perpetrators still have not been found.
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