Director General of the Energy Community (EC) Secretariat Janez Kopac said that sanctions will be imposed on Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) again, starting from 1 April 2017. The reinstatement of EC sanctions will bring tens of millions of euros intended for the country’s energy sector into question.
The sanctions are being reintroduced because the country has missed the agreed deadline for adopting the agreement on electricity and gas transmission on state and entity levels, which will expire on 31 March. Last week, Minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) Mirko Sarovic warned about this possibility, noting that the Ministry has sent the agreed text of the law to entity Ministries about a month ago, but got no response on the matter so far.
Prime Minister of the Republic of Srpska (RS) Zeljka Cvijanovic said on the occasion that RS should not be blamed in case of reinstatement of these sanction to BiH.
At the Ministerial Council of the Energy Community Secretariat held on 14 October 2016 in Sarajevo, it was decided that sanctions imposed against Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) last year will be temporarily suspended. Director General of the Energy Community Secretariat Janez Kopac said that BiH now has until June next year to adopt gas regulations on the level of the entities, while these regulations have to be adopted at the state level by March 2017. The sanctions were introduced after 2015 Ministerial Council, due to the decision of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina to reject the agreement on gas regulations, despite the fact that these were already agreed on entity level, and request that gas policies should be regulated at the state level with a single gas regulator, which was unacceptable for the Republic of Srpska.
