BOSNIAN PRESIDENCY AGAIN WITHOUT CONSENSUS ON AGREEMENT ON DUAL CITIZENSHIP BETWEEN BOSNIA AND CROATIA

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (February 21,2008) – The Bosnian Presidency did not achieve consensus on the proposition to ratify the agreement on dual citizenship between Bosnia and Croatia.

Bosnian Presidency member Haris Silajzic was against this decision since he believes that the problem of dual citizenship should not be solved this way and that a complete solution has to be found which would satisfy all Bosnian citizens and put then in equal position.

”The case is by ratifying this agreement with Croatia, the Bosnian citizens with Croatian citizenship would be in privileged position”, stated Silajdzic at the press conference after the Bosnian Presidency session.

He pointed out that there is no democratic country in the world which takes away its citizenship if its citizens gain citizenship of some other country” and that “Bosnia is the only country in the world which conditions dual citizenship with bilateral agreement”.

He appealed to those in parliament who for the fifth time refused to cancel Article 17 of the Law on citizenship to reconsider their decision, since by doing this we put all our citizens in equal position and to resolve this matter with the countries which expect us to conclude it by canceling Article 17”.

Considering there was no consensus, Silajdzic announced that he will take the decision to the Bosnian Parliament's House of Peoples and claim the protection of vital national interest”.

Also,the Bosnian Presidency did not reach a consensus on sending the request to the UN Security Council regarding the measures on implementation of the verdict by International Court of Justice from February 2007.

Bosnian Presidency members Haris Silajdzic and Zeljko Komsic voted for while Nebojsa Radmanovic was against this decision.

The Bosnian Presidency adopted the information on realization of NATO Trust Fund activities and adopted a decision on opening proceeding for talks over the conclusion of Agreement between Bosnia and Slovakia on improvement and protection of investments and decision on the agreement between Bosnia and Hungary on social security and insurance.

The Bosnian Presidency also adopted a decision on changes and amendments of the decision on rationalization of diplomatic and consular offices of Bosnia abroad.

According to this decision, the Bosnian Ministry of Foreign Affairs shall within 90 days from this decision finalize all affairs on closing one consulate of Bosnia in Bonn, Germany and all activities around opening of the new consulate in Frankfurt until December 31.
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