Topic: “The Improvement of the Legal Regulations in the Field of Local Self-Government”

Participants: 39 participants
- Representatives of the local authorities from Tuzla, Gradacac, Zivinice, Banja Luka, Srebrenica, Velika Kladusa, Sarajevo, Novo Sarajevo, Zvornik, Ilidza, Vogosca, Lopare, Bihac, Mostar, Gacko and Trebinje
- Representatives of NGOs from Tuzla, Banja Luka and Trebinje
- Representatives of media from Tuzla, canton and state level

Materials: the bill on principles of the local self-government, made by the expert team, was sent to the participants by mail.

Discussion:
The moderators of the round table were Mr Vehid Sehic and Mr Mirko Pejanovic. They made an introduction into discussion.
Most of the participants presented their opinion and attitude on offered text and pointed out the problems that should be solved through the articles of this law. Some of the proposals were:
- the law should regulate and define the financial rights of the local communities;
- the constitutional amendments and the law should more precisely define obligation and ways for providing of the means of the local communities;
- the article 5 of the offered text of the bill should define rights of the local communities, with special attention to financial rights of the local communities, which should be established by per cent;
- articles 11, 12 and 13 of the offered text should more precisely define institutions of the city council and municipal council;
- the law should define disposal of the resources of the local communities. To be more precise, it should not be defined as “in accordance with the law” since these laws are in the jurisdiction of the entities and local communities do not have influence on them. It means that the rights of the local communities related to disposal of the resources of the local communities should be precisely established. It should be also defined how citizens can participate in decision-making process on disposal of the resources of the local community;
- The law should have all the European standards on local self-government;
- The text of the bill should contain articles on rights and obligations of the ecological protection of he local community in relation to usage of their resources;
- The law should be passed as lex specialis law, meaning that it has stronger legal force that other laws and regulations that are in the collision with this law;
- The final text of the bill should be sent to the Directorate for European Integration, so they could get involved into the submitting procedure of this law to Parliament and in the parliamentary procedure itself.
The expert team is obliged to incorporate acceptable proposals and suggestions into the bill.

Results: FTC, as the organiser of the round table, is very satisfied with the suggestions and number of active participants at this round table, since that clearly shows that this initiative and project aim has strong support from the representatives of the local authorities of many municipalities, and more importantly from both entities. What is extremely important is the intention to improve the position and the status of the local communities and introduction of the European standards of the local self-government into BiH legislation. This would support the process of decentralisation of political and financial authorities in both entities. These are also the long-term objectives of the project.