Progress by BiH on adopting the Justice Sector Reform Strategy 2014 – 2018 will enable the EU to continue transfer more funds to BiH to reduce the backlog of war crimes cases, the EU Delegation/EUSR Office said today.

Dr Renzo Daviddi, Deputy Head of Delegation said:

“Bosnia and Herzegovina faces a unique challenge in addressing the extensive backlog of war crimes cases. Due to this specific situation as well as to speed up the implementation of the National War Crimes Strategy, in December 2012 the EU agreed to provide exceptional budgetary support of 14.876 million euro. The funds would be disbursed across all four jurisdictions in BiH over a five year period. In the first phase, this money has enabled the recruitment of 137 additional staff across prosecutors’ offices, courts and the Office of Criminal Defence in the Ministry of Justice of BiH until the end of December 2014. The purpose of the extraordinary budgetary support is to complement, not replace, domestic financing of prosecutors, judges and their staff, thus reinforcing the processing of war crimes cases.

“The implementation of the budgetary support for war crimes case processing is in its early stages, however we welcome that the initial benchmarks have been met – there has been a 5% reduction of cases with identified suspects. But quality not quantity  will remain a key prerequisite for assessing progress. We believe that the current momentum needs to be continued and to speed up.

“The release of further funds depends too on progress being made on actions regarding the justice sector as whole. A key outstanding item is the adoption of the new Justice Sector Reform Strategy 2014 – 2018. There have been a number of delays and it is now crucial to move ahead. In order to ensure the timely disbursement of the second tranche of the budget support – 2.975million EUR –  to cover the costs beyond December 2014, we urge the relevant authorities in BiH to take the necessary steps to adopt the new strategy. Further delays would endanger the disbursement. A new country-wide sectoral strategy is also relevant to secure future support to the judiciary under IPA II assistance.”