DODIK: WITHOUT CONSENSUS, THE LAWS ON THE COURT AND THE HJPC CANNOT MOVE FORWARD

BANJA LUKA, DECEMBER 9 /SRNA/ - SNSD President Milorad Dodik stated that the failure to adopt the agenda of the Council of Ministers session is not an attempt to mute "EU enthusiasm among Croats" nor "Muslim cynicism," but a consequence of the fact that these laws and procedures have not been agreed upon or harmonised with the institutions of Republika Srpska.

"Serb ministers in the Council of Ministers upheld the clear position of Republika Srpska that its institutions must be included, and for that reason they did not support the proposed agenda, which included the draft decision on establishing the Office of the Chief Negotiator of BiH with the EU, as well as the draft laws on the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council /HJPC/ and amendments to the Law on the Court of BiH," Dodik said. He stressed that the laws on the Court and the HJPC have been problematic for years and that nothing has changed, except for what he described as a deception coming from the Muslim political side. "Until an agreement is reached and positions are harmonised, such matters cannot proceed into the legislative process. Agreement is the foundation of everything!" Dodik wrote on the social network X. Dodik also stated that the Head of the EU Delegation to BiH, Luigi Soreca, "would be best advised to remain silent". "That empty advocate of the rule of law has proven himself a miserable pawn of a failed policy," Dodik wrote in a postscript. He further claimed that Soreca is "an open anti-Serb with concealed intentions of unitarising BiH outside the framework of the BiH Constitution". "That self-proclaimed advocate of the rule of law is a hypocritical and malicious interpreter of nothing. Therefore, it is better for him to stay silent and thus reach his retirement. Whenever he speaks, our policy stands opposed. He should sell that rhetoric in his own country. If we had wanted to endure their occupation, we would not have fought for our freedom so many times," Dodik concluded.