Bosnia Entity PMs Pledge to Unite on Reforms

In an unusual sign of cooperation, the Prime Minister of Bosnia's Federation entity, Fadil Novalic, and his counterpart in Republika Srpska, Zeljka Cvijanovic, met to pledge to work together on reforms aimed at speeding up Bosnia's EU accession.

The two premiers held a joint meeting with Joyce Anelay, Britain's Special Representative on Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict, in Banja Luka on Wednesday.

"We want to harmonize regulations as far as possible, or at least bring them closer in cases where the harmonization is impossible due to the different constitutional structures and competences," a statement quoted Cvijanovic as saying said.

"This is a new page in the economy of Bosnia and Herzegovina and we have to dedicate ourselves to the harmonization of the regulations and endorsement of capital growth through investments," the same statement cited Novalic as saying.

The two leaders told the media that the meeting discussed Bosnia's new coordinating mechanism for EU projects, which has been blocked for years by political strife, as well as other details of the country's reform agenda.

The two premiers also pledged to work jointly on the preparation of new financial arrangements with the IMF and the World Bank, which have been blocked since last year due to the logjam on other reforms.

On Wednesday, the two premiers also chaired a session of shareholders' assembly of the state power transmission company, Transco, which is co-owned by both entities, and agreed on the distribution of company's 1.4 million euro profits from 2014.

Experts attribute the sudden warming in relations between the two entity governments to awareness of the worsening economic and social situation across Bosnia and a potential liquidity crisis...