A two-day Plenary Session of the EU-BiH Structured Dialogue on Justice commenced in Banja Luka today in the RS Government building. The meeting is co-chaired by the Director for Enlargement Policy and Strategy at the European Commission, Mr Pierre Mirel, and the BiH Working Group on Justice and Internal Affairs Chair, Mr Bakir Dautbasic.
An extensive agenda adopted for the plenary session includes various matters related to the judiciary reform in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Today’s meeting started with a discussion on the equality of citizens before the law in the war-crimes cases. Greater part of the debate was related to implementation of the European Court on Human Rights judgement in the case of Maktouf and Damjanovic vs. Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as to the impact of this ruling on courts pratice.
In the afternoon, participants discussed latest information on the legal and institutional framework. More precisely, the Draft Law on BiH Courts, the Draft Amendments to the Law on HJPC and Amendments to the RS Law on Courts were discussed.
The plenary session will be continued tomorrow at 9:30 hrs. Based on the outcome of the meeting and the assessment of all relevant developments, the European Commission will release a set of technical recommendations. These will be posted on the website of the EU Delegation to Bosnia and Herzegovina soon after, as is always custom.
The Structured Dialogue was developed by the European Union and it aims at supporting reforms of the justice system in the country and bringing it closer to the EU. This platform provides the context to discuss all reforms that are necessary to allow BiH to progress in the alignment of its judicial system with the EU acquis and relevant European standards. The first meeting of the EU-BiH Structured Dialogue on Justice was held in June 2011.
