The third public tribune „Improvement of the legislation in the local government“ was held in hotel „Bristol“ in Mostar, at 11.00 o'clock, with the organisational assistance of the partner organisation „Cupido“ from Mostar.

Speaker at this tribune were Mr Vehid Sehic, Lawyer, FTC President and Prof. Mirko Pejanovic from Sarajevo University.

Mr Sehic as the FTC President, the organisation which implements the project, informed participants with the organisation’s previous activities related to affirmation of the rights from the field of the local government. He also informed participants about basic aims and activities of the project that are currently in the process of realisation, as well about the results that want to be achieved.

Speaking about the necessity of the improvement of the legislation in the field of the local government in BiH, he pointed out the necessity to bring the amendments to the BiH Constitution. It would define local government as the constitutional category in order to enable local communities constitutional and legal protection of their status and position, which, according to the current legislation, they do not have today. The implementation of the Article 2 of the European Charter on Local Government should result in bringing of the state law, which would enable BiH state, after it becomes part of the European Union, to transfer part of the jurisdiction from the field of the local government to the Union, as every developed state-member of the European Union have done.

Speaking about future draft of the law, Mr Sehic pointed out that it has to be based on the principles of solidarity and social principles in order to achieve equality of the citizens at the whole territory of BiH. Through the articles of the law, local communities, municipalities and cities have to have possibility for institutional associating in order to implement and protect rights and interests of their citizens, since now they do not have the possibility to associate in this way.
Mr Sehic also pointed out that this draft of the law should create assumptions for entity, regional and cross-border associating of the municipalities and cities in order to provide qualitative services to their citizens. BiH state is about to sign and ratify Charter on Regional Co-operation and Convention on Cross-Border Co-operation, which will enable regional associating of the communities, which is today one of the European standards related the local government in the European Union countries.

Prof. Mirko Pejanovic, expert for local government, spoke about the essence of the project that is in the process of realisation. According to him, the project is aimed to speed up the issue of development of BiH state through development of the local government, as one of the basic European standards for measuring of the capacities for development of democracy in a country. According to Prof. Pejanovic, development and improvement of the regulations in the field of the local government is the fastest and the most important way for development of the democracy and achievement of the European Union standards.
According to the speech of Prof. Pejanovic, the reform of the local government understands:
- reform of the legislation (which this project and its activities want to achieve, pointed out Prof. Pejanovic),
- functional reform of the local administration, which means more efficient, cheaper and more functional local administration, and
- territorial re-structuring of the municipalities, since the current territorial organisation is inherited from the previous system. It requires consensus of the citizens and consensus of the policy. It will not happen soon, but it should be started as soon as possible, so the process of the development of the local government in BiH can go faster.
As Prof. Pejanovic pointed out, the changes and additions to the BiH Constitution should regulate at the first place – the right of the citizens on local government, which will be implemented in the local community; the scope of the local government; enabling of the inter-municipal, cross-border and European co-operation of BiH cities; institutionalisation of the local government through introduction of the state institution, for instance agency that will deal with the issues of development of the local government, monitor and support local government and introduce European standards into BiH society.

After the introduction speeches, the participants of the public tribune, mostly representatives of the executive and legislation authorities from the City of Mostar, representatives of non-governmental organisations, as well the citizens of Mostar, presented their opinions and attitudes and pointed out that they strongly support aims and activities of the project. According to their experience related to the local government, the draft law should solve:
- the problem of jurisdiction and responsibilities of the carriers of the local authorities, which is not solved through current legislation
- necessity of restriction of the jurisdiction of Federation, cantons and local communities,
- defining of financial means for functioning of the local community,
- defining of the property of the local community, and
- enabling of the associating of the local communities and their inter-regional co-operation for satisfaction of the needs and interests of their citizens.

Within preparation for holding of this public tribune, the partner organisation “Cupido” announced the public tribunes with posters.

23 participants participated in the public tribune. Most of the participants actively participated in the work of the tribune by presenting their opinions, experiences, attitudes and proposals.

As it was the case in the previous public tribunes, the training materials were distributed to the participants. The training material is the booklet printed by FTC, which consists of legal regulations from the field of the local government in BiH. The participants expressed gratitude for these training materials.

Beside the booklet, FTC distributed publication “BiH Court”, which consists of the activity report of the BiH Court. This publication was given to the FTC after the working visit to the Court. FTC believed that the holding of the public tribune in Mostar is good opportunity to inform the citizens of Mostar about this report.

The public tribune was covered by the media from Mostar: RTV Mostar, TV Oskar, Radio Studio 88 and the journalists of the daily newspapers “Oslobodjenje”. All of them informed their audience about the holding public tribune.

FTC believes that the public tribune in Mostar fulfilled its aim, both in getting the support to the activities and aims of the project and in giving concrete proposals and suggestions about the issues that should solve and regulate the status and position of the local communities.