According o the plan of the project activities, preparations for holding of the fifth public tribune in Bihac started in September.
The whole project, which is aimed to improve legislation in the field of the local self-government and to initiate passing of the Law on Local Self-Government at the state level, was completely supported by the Mayor of Bihac Municipality, Mr Hamdija Lipovaca and he offered himself, as the Mayor, to be the host of this public tribune. This shows that the initiative that we started through this project has great interest and importance for all local communities and their citizens in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The public tribune was held on September 21, 2007 at 11.00 am, in the hall of the Municipal Council Bihac.

62 participants were present at the public tribune.

The speakers were:
- Mirko Pejanovic, PhD, the Dean of the Faculty of Political Sciences in Sarajevo and
- Vehid Sehic, the President of the Forum of Tuzla Citizens.

Mr Sehic informed the participants about the purpose and aims of the project and spoke about current position of the local communities, which was the reason that motivated FTC to start such initiative.

Mr Pejanovic informed participants about the importance of defining the position of the local communities in the BiH Constitution and by the state Law on Local Self-Goverment, since that is the authority level where citizens satisfy and implement most of their rights and needs and interests. He pointed out that in current structure of the BiH authorities, this level of the authority does not have either legal (constitutional) support or material possibility to implement its obligations imposed by the entity laws. Undefined local communities lead to inexistence of the mechanisms or state institution that would solve problems and protect interests of the local communities. He also pointed out that in F BiH (at the entity level) there is no institutional body that would do that part of work, so the problems of interests of the local communities cannot be solved in this entity. For instance, according to the new Law on Principles of the Local Self-Government in F BiH, some municipalities, like Bihac Municipality, brought the decision proclaimed themselves as cities. However, these decisions are still only formal and legal acts of these municipalities, without institutional legal confirmation from the higher level of the authority.

After the introductory speeches, Mr Sehic opened discussion and asked participants to present their suggestions and opinions.

Discussions, conclusions and remarks:

- Mayor of Bihac Municipality, Mr Lipovaca, presented some concrete problems that he faces in the work, giving special attention to the importance of defining of the local communities as the authority level and necessity for establishment of the body or ministry that will deal with problems of the local communities. As an example, he named inexistence of the consensus between municipality, canton, entity and state in relation to foreign investments. In such situation, local communities do not have any support, nor are they involved in the procedure as the level of the authority, although it is about the offer or selling of the facilities or land that is at the territory of the local community to the foreign investors. That is why he believes that the BiH Constitution has to have clear definition of the position of the local communities as the level of the authority and the relation of higher and lower levels of the authorities has to be defined. Mr Lipovaca pointed out that existing legislation does not completely solve and define relation between Municipal Council and Mayor, since both bodies get their sovereignty from the same election body, i.e. citizens of the local community.
- Representative of one of the city settlements from Bihac, initiated by Mr Pejanovic’s speech, pointed out that it is necessary to define local self-government and the role and the importance of the city settlements in the decision-making processes by this regulation or some other. In the existing legislative, the importance of the city settlements in the decision-making processes is not regulated in satisfying way.
- Mr Pejanovic replied that that is the consequence of the lack of good communication between Municipality and the citizens.
- Most of the participants who joined the discussion pointed out the problem of financial position of the local community and irregular and partial allocation of the public income. This is not related only to VAT, but also the income of the public state companies, naming many examples from their local community. They pointed out the insufficient financial position of the local communities, having in mind the obligations and jurisdiction that are imposed through the existing legislation. They also pointed out the problem of prep-schools and primary education, which is, according to the new legislation on local self-government, in the jurisdiction of the municipalities. This transfer of the jurisdiction is not followed by financial means, which completely blocks the work of the local communities in this field. This is directly in contradiction with both the Charter and the new Law on Principles of the Local Self-Government.
- Finally, the most important problem, which has to be defined by this legislative or by changes of the existing legislation, is the issue of the municipal property. The problem of the municipal property comes from the canton, which illegally took it over.

Participants of the tribune were: representatives of the municipal departments, councillors of the Municipal Council Bihac, representatives of the city settlements, representatives of NGOs from Bihac and other municipalities of canton. They expressed their full support to this initiative for improvement of the legislative in this field since it is very important for the local community. Attitudes and opinions of the participants of the tribune and their proposals for solutions of these problems pointed out the inadequate position of the local communities in the system of the authorities in BiH. In F BiH, it pointed out the lack of institutional body that would represent the interests of the local communities and deal with the problems of the ones.

The work of the tribune was covered by representatives of the local radio station “Bihac”, as well by the radio-television of Una-Sana canton.