MAZALICA: DIGITAL IDENTITY REGULATED BY LAW, NOT BY COMPLAINING TO FOREIGN AMBASSADORS

BANJA LUKA, JUNE 4 /SRNA/ – The Director of the BiH Agency for Identification Documents, Registers and Data Exchange /IDDEEA/ Almir Badnjević attempted in his address at the Peace Implementation Council /PIC/ session to portray Republika Srpska as an opponent of digitalization, while the truth is exactly the opposite, Srđan Mazalica, head of the SNSD caucus in the Republika Srpska National Assembly, told SRNA.

Mazalica recalled that the Republika Srpska National Assembly had adopted a modern law on electronic identification and trust services, aligned with eIDAS 2.0 regulation of the European Union, because we want digitalization based on European standards, the rule of law, and the protection of citizens' rights. "The problem is not digitalization. The problem arises when certain institutions attempt, under the pretext of digital transformation, to assume powers that have not been granted to them by law," Mazalica told SRNA commenting on Badnjević's statement before members of the PIC Steering Board that digitalization processes in Srpska could lead to the fragmentation of a "single state digital space". Mazalica explained that the Constitutional Court of BiH, in case U-1/25, clearly determined that IDDEEA is competent for electronic certificates and electronic signatures exclusively in connection with identification documents. At the same time, he added, the Personal Data Protection Agency and the Court of BiH found that there is no legal basis for assigning electronic identities and qualified electronic signatures in the form the IDDEEA attempted to establish, and that the legal system of BiH does not recognize the concept of a "remote signature" or a "cloud signature". "It is particularly concerning that efforts are being made to create the impression that IDDEEA is responsible for the digital transformation of the entire country, even though the Law on IDDEEA nowhere specifies such authority. IDDEEA's legal role is to provide technical and operational support to competent authorities, not to take over their powers. Mr. Badnjević often speaks about the importance of digital identity, which no one disputes. But digital identity is not a political slogan; it is a legal category. It is regulated by law, not by complaining to foreign ambassadors," Mazalica emphasized. More importantly, he said, eIDAS 2.0 does not require a single central institution or one centralized system. "The European regulation allows states to establish one or more supervisory bodies in accordance with their constitutional arrangements. BiH is not a centralized state. The Dayton Peace Agreement established a system of limited and explicitly listed competencies for the institutions of BiH, while all other competencies belong to the entities. Therefore, Republika Srpska has the right, within its constitutional competencies, to develop its own digital services, e-administration, and electronic identification systems, in accordance with European standards and with full interoperability with other systems," Mazalica explained. He stated that Republika Srpska supports digitalization but does not accept digitalization becoming a pretext for the centralization of powers that were never transferred to the institutions of BiH.