Nermin Niksic

Bosnia's Federation entity has slapped down a call to increase pensions, saying the damage caused by the May floods made this financially impossible.

The Association of Pensioners in the Federation entity is demanding that the government increase pensions by 5 per cent, citing the tough economic situation.

Three months after devastating floods hit Bosnia, the country's Federation entity on Tuesday finally set up a "Solidarity Fund", which is to act as the agency for the distribution of more than 2 million euro that the government has collected from donations.

Lawmakers in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, one of Bosnia's two entities, on May 6 adopted changes to laws on dealing with corruption.

The changes to the Law on Courts and the Law on Criminal Procedure, Corruption and Organized Crime allow for the creation of special units tasked with pursuing and trying perpetrators of organized crime and corruption.

Nermin Niksic, Prime Minister of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, one of Bosnia's two entities, on May 5 warned that the entity budget faced a crisis due to the cancellation of an expected tranche of IMF money.

The IMF representative to Bosnia, Ruben Ayotan, blamed Bosnia's failure to adopt key laws for the blockage of the cash.

The two shareholders in Bosnia's power distribution company, Elektroprenos, which are the country's two entities on March 31 agreed to divide up the net profit of the company - some 50 million euro.

The Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina will get 58 per cent of the sum while the other entity, Republika Srpska, will get 42 per cent.